GREENFIELD — Local police have released more details about a Tuesday crash that resulted in the death of a local World War II veteran.
Byron Newhouse, 93, of Fortville, said he never saw Ray Crickmore, 91, as Crickmore attempted to cross West Main Street at 6 p.m. Tuesday, just east of the intersection with Jefferson Boulevard.
Crickmore of Greenfield was walking north when he was struck by the right front bumper of Newhouse’s vehicle, according to an accident report. Officials said Crickmore was crossing the street to help a relative who’d been locked out of a vehicle nearby.
When police arrived to the accident scene, Crickmore was lying on the north shoulder of the westbound lane of Main Street. He was breathing but unable to speak, according to an accident report.
Police and fire department medics who responded to the scene called for a helicopter to rush Crickmore to an Indianapolis trauma center. A Greenfield Fire Territory ambulance drove Crickmore to Hancock Regional Hospital, where a medical helicopter flew him to Indiana University Health Methodist Hospital, police said.
Crickmore died from blunt force trauma, the Marion County coroner told local police.
Newhouse was not cited in the accident, according to the accident report. Police said he was not impaired at the time of the accident.
Crickmore was active in veterans organizations, a member of the Greenfield American Legion Post No. 119, the Greenfield Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2693, the Hancock County Veterans Honor Guard and the county’s 40/8 veterans’ organization.
He joined the Navy in 1943 at 17 years old and served as a radio operator aboard a battleship stationed in the Pacific, said Bob Workman, a friend of Crickmore’s and the head of the county’s veteran’s affairs office.
