A West Baden man is dead after his dump truck rolled over near French Lick this morning.

Indiana State Police say around 7:20 this morning, 28-year old Gared Blake Allen was traveling eastbound on State Road 56 in a Sterling dump truck when he drove off the south edge of the roadway on French Lick Hill for an unknown reason. He was unable to steer the truck back onto the road. Police say this caused the vehicle to slide down a ditch line, overturn, and strike a tree.

Allen was pronounced dead at the scene by the Orange County Coroner’s Office. The truck was partially loaded with soil, which spilled into the ditch line. Police say Allen was not wearing his seat belt at the time of the crash. Vehicle recovery crews remained on scene for a couple of hours after the accident attempting to remove the truck.

Indiana State Police were assisted on scene by the French Lick Police and Fire Departments, Orange County Coroner, Orange County Rural Fire Department, and IU Health EMS.

Indiana State Police now have both men in custody in connection with the killing of a 54-year-old Greene County man.

35-year-old Jason Lee Caldwell was arrested just before 4 o’clock this morning by Indianapolis police while state police arrested 41-year-old Kevin Caldwell yesterday evening. The two men were wanted in connection with the death of David Lamm of Solsberry. Lamm’s body was found in his residence in the 8700 block of Ingram Road near Newark on Saturday afternoon. The cause of Lamm’s death has not been released by authorities.

Both men were wanted on warrants out of Greene County on unrelated charges. Jason Caldwell is listed as a sexually violent predator on Greene County’s sex and violent offender registry website. He was convicted of sexual battery in Morgan County in April 1997 and sentenced to serve one year. He was later convicted of child molesting in Morgan County in April 2012 and sentenced to serve seven years with the Indiana Department of Corrections.

Kevin Caldwell has a lengthy criminal history, which also includes battery, burglary and theft.

Well the Jasper Strassenfest is still a week away but if you drove through the Downtown Square today, you wouldn’t know it.

This morning, workers from Jasper Lumber began unloading the pieces for this year’s main and west stages along the sound booth. The trailer was delivered last night. Work this morning focused on the main stage as crews began putting the stage together.

Gary Schnell is the entertainment coordinator for the Strassenfest. He says all of the help with putting the stage together certainly makes a difference:

Schnell says the stages and sound booth will likely be completely set up by late in the day on Wednesday or by noon on Thursday. The other booths will be set up early next week.This year’s Strassenfest kicks off next Thursday evening with the opening ceremonies. The fest will feature 12 new entertainment acts this year and will run through Sunday, August 3rd.

A report from an off-duty Huntingburg Police officer led to the arrest of a Newburgh man on a felony battery charge.

Just before 2 pm yesterday, Huntingburg Police received a call from an off-duty officer about a possible battery taking place in a vehicle that was going south on US 231 from State Road 162. The officer saw a male driver swinging at and appearing to hit a passenger sitting right behind him.

While he was following the vehicle, the officer said the young male attempted to try getting out of the vehicle while it was stopped in order to avoid being hit again. Police then pulled the vehicle over west of the city lake and officers detained the driver pending investigation.

Police found that the driver (43-year-old Andres Solis) had used a USB cord to hit the 13-year-old boy. The boy received a welt on his wrist from the incident.

Solis was then taken to the Huntingburg Police Department for further questioning. After the questioning, he was lodged in the Dubois County Security Center on a Level 5 felony for battery.

The Dubois County Sheriff’s Department also assisted.

A 2 vehicle accident just north of Jasper resulted in 1 of the vehicles catching on fire and sent a Dubois woman to the hospital.

Just before 2:45 yesterday afternoon, Dubois County Sheriff’s deputies were called to the crash along Kellerville Road. Deputies say 63-year-old Judy Douglas was northbound along Kellerville Road at the same time as 35-year-old Jonathan Bateman of Jasper was headed southbound. Deputies say Bateman swerved into the northbound lane to avoid hitting a deer in the roadway. Bateman then collided head-on with Douglas’ vehicle.

Bateman got out of his vehicle just before it caught on fire. Douglas was then pulled from her vehicle and taken to safety. Douglas sustained a fractured wrist and complained of abdominal and ankle pain. After being treated on scene, she was taken and admitted to Memorial Hospital for treatment of her injuries. Bateman was treated on scene for minor injuries.

Both vehicles were total losses in this accident. The Jasper Fire Department, Jasper First Responders, Memorial Hospital EMS, and a wrecker from Uelbehor’s Wrecker Service also assisted.

A pair of Jasper teens are among 17 students to be recognized by Lt. Governor Sue Ellspermann for their efforts in a statewide contest aimed at curbing texting while driving.

19-year-olds Austin Hoffman and Logan Schroering were honored during a ceremony held Friday afternoon at the Statehouse. The two teens created a 6 second video through the social media platform Vine as part of the “DriveNow TxtL8r” contest. Other students from across the state submitted tweets, photos, and other items to urge their peers to avoid texting while driving.

The winners of the “Drive Now. TXT L8R” contest will have $5,000 deposited in state 529 college savings accounts that were created for them.

College and high school students were awarded the scholarships based on the number of tweets, likes on Instagram, creative use of Vine and other metrics for social media.

Ellspermann noted that texting drivers are 23 times more likely to get in an accident than someone who isn’t texting. The contest was paid for with a federal grant.

Spencer County has earned accreditation for its efforts to be prepared for bad weather.

On Friday, the county was presented the StormReady accreditation from the National Weather Service’s Paducah office and the Indiana Department of Homeland Security. The ceremony was held at the county courthouse in Rockport.

The accreditation comes after years of work by county officials on storm-preparedness training. The work also involved updates to the county’s storm communication and warning systems.

Deputy emergency management director Al Perdue says the initiatives leading up to Friday’s accreditation began 15 years ago when the StormReady program began. The county will now have to continue the training in order to maintain the designation going forward.

StormReady program leaders say StormReady communities and entities are better prepared for when severe weather strikes due to their advanced planning, communication, and awareness. The program is designed to encourage proactive approaches by communities to improving local hazardous weather operations. It also provides emergency personnel with guidelines about how to make their hazardous weather operations run more smoothly.