By Jon Seidel
Chicago Sun-Times
Copyright 2007 Sun-Times News Group
GARY, Ill. — When an ambulance was called for two of the four victims of a violent car crash early Saturday, Gary Fire Department dispatchers might not have been told that a crash occurred.
The fire department, therefore, was not asked to help look for the other two teenagers who were left by the side of the road for at least six hours until their relatives found them dead.
Fire Chief Jeff Ward said Sunday he was told the incident was identified to dispatchers only as an “unknown injury” and that an ambulance wasn’t called to the actual crash scene.
“I don’t know who called it in, but we’re getting the tapes to find out exactly what happened,” Ward said.
2 went for help
Gary police officials did not return calls for comment Sunday. Cmdr. Samuel Roberts has said Officer Jeffery Westerfield followed proper procedure.
Brandon Smith, 18, was driving a truck north on Chase Street at 3 a.m. Saturday, police said. With him were Dominique Green, Darius Moore and DeAndre Anderson, all 18.
Police said Smith lost control of the truck and crashed through a metal fence into an area thick with weeds.
Smith and Green were thrown from the vehicle, police said, and one of the two remaining passengers managed to crawl out of the truck to get help. Ward said Sunday that the ambulance was asked to pick up the victims at 24th Avenue and Chase Street, three blocks north of the accident scene.
“They never went to the scene,” Ward said, “and they were never told there were other patients.”
Ignored, boys say
But Brandon Smith’s uncle said the boys were ignored when they told police that their friends were still at the scene of the crash.
Hours later, Arthur “Bud” Smith became worried because his son Brandon Smith hadn’t come home. He decided to go out and look for him. Just after 9 a.m. Saturday, Darren and Arthur Smith found the bodies of Green and Smith 10 feet from where the truck landed.
The Lake County coroner’s office was called to the scene. Both teenagers had suffered blunt force injuries and were pronounced dead.