Indiana I-65/I-70/I-69 Truck Accident Corridors

• Every day, trucks carry incredible volumes of cargo throughout Indiana on major freight corridors like I-65, I-70, and I-69, significant portions of which are part of the Primary Highway Freight System.
• However, as valuable as they are to life and commerce, the heavy truck traffic on these roads has led to a substantial number of truck accidents and made them among the most dangerous in the state.
• Fortunately, Hensley Legal Group, PC has had proven success with large vehicle injury cases both in Indiana and nationwide, such as a $25 million jury verdict* for a collision with an ambulance.

*SPECIFIC CASE RESULTS.  NO TWO CASES ARE EXACTLY ALIKE.

Trucking is pivotal to life and commerce in the modern world, supplying the public with essential goods and supporting the operations of businesses of every size. And because trucks and semi-trailers are only as effective at transporting cargo as the roads they ride on, Congress has authorized the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to create the National Highway Freight Network (NHFN).

Designed to “strategically direct Federal resources and policies toward improved performance of highway portions of the U.S. freight transportation system,” the NHFN is composed of subsystems of roadways known as freight corridors. The FHWA ranks these freight corridors in order of importance, and the most important are the corridors in the Primary Highway Freight System (PHFS), a “network of highways identified as the most critical highway portions of the U.S. freight transportation system.”

The FHWA updates the PHFS every five years as the agency reassesses “the significance of goods movement, including consideration of points of origin, destinations, and linking components of the United States global and domestic supply chains.”

Many roadways in Indiana are in the PHFS to some degree, with I-65 and I-70 being almost fully designated as part of the PHFS along with substantial portions of I-69. This can definitely be beneficial, since membership in this group can elevate a roadway’s priority in the transportation planning process and grant access to the federal funding that goes with it. However, many of the characteristics of these roads that have led to this designation, such as the incredibly high levels of truck traffic, can come with a huge downside in the form of a heightened probability of truck accidents, which are some of the most disastrous events on any road today.

A study of traffic data from 2020 to 2024 concluded that I-65 is the deadliest road in Indiana, while I-70 and I-69 tied for the state’s fourth deadliest. Truck accidents are disproportionately likely to expand this death toll, since they have been shown to be about 2.5 to three times as deadly as car accidents.

Even a non-fatal truck accident can inflict punishing injuries demanding prolonged treatment that few families could afford on their own, although compensation may be available when someone else is at fault for an accident in a major trucking corridor in Indiana. Moreover, you can increase the amount you obtain by teaming up with the skilled truck accident lawyers at Hensley Legal Group, PC, a dedicated Indiana personal injury law firm whose experienced attorneys have been fighting on behalf of the wrongfully injured since 1998.

Hensley has had proven success with large vehicle injury claims over the years, with such notable outcomes as:

• A $25 million verdict for a collision with an ambulance.
• An $8.0 million settlement for a delivery truck accident.
• A $5.5 million claim resolution for a semi truck crash.

Achievements like these have earned Hensley recognition as one of the Best Law Firms in the United States by Best Lawyers®, while Hensley truck accident attorney Sarah Graziano has earned the Trial Lawyer of the Year Award from the Indiana Trial Lawyers Association and served as president of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA) for the past four years. Additionally, attorneys at the firm have been included in the Million Dollar Advocates Forum, the Academy of Truck Accident Attorneys, the American Association for Justice, Trucking Litigation Group, Super Lawyers, America’s Top 100 Attorneys, and the National Trial Lawyers’ lists of the Top 100 Trial Lawyers and the Top 40 Under 40.

To discover what a knowledgeable Indiana truck accident attorney can do for you, schedule a free consultation by calling us at (317) 472-3333, chatting with us online, or filling out our contact form now.

I-65

I-65 is one of the most significant north-south highways in the east-central part of the United States, connecting the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, and the northern end of this road kicks off in Gary, IN. After dipping into Illinois, I-65 passes through such Indiana cities as Lafayette and Greenwood and on to Indianapolis, where around 17,500 trucks drive on I-65 every day. I-65 ultimately departs Indiana at Jefferson and moves on through Kentucky and Tennessee before its almost 900-mile-long trek comes to a stop in Mobile, AL, only a few miles from the Gulf Coast.

The scale of the freight that trucks routinely haul across this road is extraordinary, including an estimated 350,000 tons per day through Indianapolis alone. As such, it can be tough to exaggerate how crucial I-65 is to Indiana and the nation as a whole, though this much traffic isn’t without its consequences, and they can be quite dire indeed.

As stated above, I-65 had more lethal auto accidents than any other road in Indiana from 2020 through 2024, and trucks have greatly contributed to these casualties. For instance, three people died in January 2020 when a semi truck driver heading northbound on I-65 near mile marker 129 allegedly looked away from the road during slowed traffic and caused a nine-vehicle accident.

A similar tragedy occurred on I-65 south of Austin in April 2024, when two drivers were killed in a three-truck chain reaction collision, and two other truckers died in an almost identical accident on southbound I-65 close to mile marker 176 in Tippecanoe County in January 2026.

Not every truck accident on I-65 in Indiana claims lives, obviously, although the injuries incurred are frequently extreme and tend to have a bigger impact on the occupants of any smaller vehicles that may have been present. This appears to have been the case with a September 2023 accident in which a truck rear-ended a school bus on I-65 about two miles north of the Fair Oaks exit in Jasper County, requiring the bus driver to be “transported to a Chicago hospital for treatment of life-threatening injuries.”

Clearly, the incessant trucking activity on I-65 means that it isn’t always the safest road either locally or nationally, but you can boost your chances of getting fairly compensated for your losses when you have Hensley Legal Group in your corner.

I-70

I-70 is very much like I-65 in many respects, not least in the eyes of the federal government. Like I-65, I-70 is part of the Primary Highway Freight System for basically its entire route, including the portion that’s in Indiana, thanks to its heavy truck traffic and the role that it plays in getting products manufactured in the Midwest out to key distribution networks. Like I-65, I-70 traverses a vast swath of the country, although it moves from west to east instead of from north to south and covers more than twice the distance, taking up almost 2200 miles across ten states from Utah to Maryland.

In Indiana, I-70 enters immediately to the west of Terre Haute and progresses into cities like Brazil, Greencastle, Plainfield, New Castle, and Richmond before exiting into Ohio, but its densest traffic in the state is in Indianapolis. In fact, I-70 and I-65 briefly meet and run concurrently on the east side of Downtown Indianapolis, with the “North Split” moving north and the “South Split” moving south, though I-70 has a comparable freight load throughout Indiana, and the semi crash rate to match it.

The study that declared I-65 the deadliest road in Indiana put I-70 in a three-way tie for fourth place because there were 48 incidents resulting in death on it in the period of time researched. Unsurprisingly, many of those incidents involved trucks, like a 2024 collision between two semis in Henry County in the vicinity of Spiceland that left one of the truckers dead, and a truck doesn’t have to make direct contact to harm somebody on I-70 either.

Unsecured cargo could fall off of or spill from a truck on I-70 and hit another motorist, as could a host of moving truck parts that could be under more strain than they can bear, like the tire that broke off a truck, smashed the windshield of another vehicle, and killed its driver in 2023.

Yet regardless of the nature of a semi truck accident on I-70, Hensley’s meticulous Indiana truck accident lawyers can examine the circumstances surrounding it and determine how to proceed with any case you might have.

I-69

As already mentioned, I-70 was in a three-way tie for fourth deadliest road in Indiana, and I-69 was one of the roads that tied with it. I-69 actually has other features in common with I-70, and with I-65 too, although it is distinct from those two roads in certain ways.

Like I-65 and I-70, I-69 is long (over 900 miles) and spans multiple states, including Indiana, but it isn’t continuous like they are. Instead, it consists of eight separate segments that have been constructed since 1957. The stretch that was first completed ranges from Evansville through Indianapolis and culminates in Port Huron, MI, while other segments can be found in Kentucky, Texas, and Mississippi. The different segments of I-69 have historically been connected to each other via other roads and interstates. Many of these connectors have been replaced over time by extensions that allow drivers to travel on I-69 without interruption in most areas, though there are still some remaining gaps.

Also like I-65 and I-70, I-69 is part of the Primary Highway Freight System, albeit to a much lesser degree, representing a modest fraction of the PHFS in the United States overall. In Indiana, only 10 percent of I-69 is in the PHFS, according to National Highway Freight Network tables, a sharp contrast with I-65 and I-70, both of which have almost total inclusion in the PHFS.

Nonetheless, the part of I-69 that is in the PHFS is almost overflowing with trucks, and it has the highest Annual Average Daily Truck Traffic in Indianapolis, with 22,500 trucks driving through the city on I-69 each day.

That many trucks could make I-69 truck accidents inevitable, and they’re often devastating, such as the fiery crash between two semi-trailers in Steuben County in December 2023, and sometimes fatal. To cite an especially heartbreaking recent example, a woman was killed on I-69 in August 2025 when a tanker truck collided with the rear of her SUV and forced it into the pickup truck directly in front of it in Fort Wayne.

But whether or not someone dies in an I-69 trucking accident, picking up the pieces afterward is never easy, and it can become more difficult when you have to square off against an insurance company that might have upwards of $1 million or more in coverage on the line.

Fortunately, difficult doesn’t have to be the same as impossible if you follow in the footsteps of the many Hoosiers each and every day who choose to hire Hensley.

How Our Indiana Truck Accident Attorneys Can Help

Once you retain our firm, our Indiana truck accident attorneys will launch a comprehensive investigation to track down each of the defendants who might share liability for the crash that injured you, then initiate valid claims against them within the time allotted by law. If the situation warrants it, a lawsuit could be filed as well in a court with the power to issue a binding judgment.

After acting swiftly to amass the evidentiary materials necessary to put together an airtight case against the defendants, Hensley’s tenacious Indiana truck accident lawyers will negotiate tirelessly with their insurers for a settlement that accounts for all of your damages, such as your:

• Medical bills
• Lost wages
• Pain and suffering
• Mental and emotional trauma
• Mobility restrictions
• Scarring and disfigurement
• Diminished quality of living
• Loss of consortium (if applicable)

While many Indiana truck accident cases can be resolved amicably outside of the courtroom, we aren’t afraid to take your case to trial if we don’t receive an offer that reflects what it’s really worth, unlike many of our competitors, who are rarely willing to take that risk.

By vividly conveying the extent of your losses and the depth of the defendants’ misconduct to a receptive jury, our seasoned Indiana truck accident attorneys may be able to get you the resources you need to start getting back to normal.

Hensley’s Indiana Truck Accident Lawyers Will Be Here for You

Hensley Legal Group has been standing up for the innocent victims of trucking negligence for more than a quarter century. If you’ve been badly injured by a reckless trucker on I-65, I-70, I-69, or some other roadway in Indiana or elsewhere, just know that Hensley’s Indiana truck accident lawyers will be here for you.

You can call us at (317) 472-3333, chat with us online, or fill out our contact form for a complimentary case review with an accomplished Indiana truck accident attorney at our firm.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the National Highway Freight Network (NHFN)?

The National Highway Freight Network or NHFN was created by the Federal Highway Administration to “strategically direct Federal resources and policies toward improved performance of highway portions of the U.S. freight transportation system.”

The NHFN is composed of subsystems of roadways known as freight corridors that are grouped in order of importance, and the most important are in the Primary Highway Freight System (PHFS).

What qualifies a roadway to be part of the PHFS?

The NHFN takes a variety of factors into account when assessing whether a roadway should be part of the PHFS, but the individual criteria can vary from case to case.

Nevertheless, freight corridors in the PHFS usually have heavy truck traffic and play a pivotal role in the distribution of goods throughout the country.

What roadways in Indiana are in the PHFS?

Multiple roadways in Indiana are in the PHFS, including I-65, I-70, and I-69.

While I-65 and I-70 are almost entirely included in the PHFS, only about 10 percent of I-69 in Indiana has received this designation, though the sections that are in the PHFS have a substantial number of trucks traveling on them.

Are major freight corridors dangerous?

Major freight corridors like I-65, I-70, and I-69 tend to be more dangerous than the average roadway in Indiana.

In fact, many of the qualities that make these corridors so valuable, such as their significant volumes of trucking traffic, can also make them dangerous because they increase the likelihood of truck accidents, which are statistically 2.5 to three times as deadly than car crashes.

What is the deadliest road in Indiana?

A recent study ranked I-65 ranked as the deadliest road in Indiana because 93 total incidents resulting in death took place on it between 2020 and 2024.

Two other freight corridors in the PHFS, I-70 and I-69, tied as the fourth deadliest roads in the state, with each of them recording 48 deadly traffic accidents during this same period.