Police: Alcohol, rain, speed likely factors in crash that killed 2 Indiana football players

Aug. 24 (UPI) -- Alcohol, speed and rain were likely factors in the single-vehicle crash over the weekend that killed three people, including two Indiana State football players, in Riley, Ind., the Vigo County Sheriff's Office said Wednesday.

Freshman linebacker Christian Eubanks, 18, freshman defensive back Caleb VanHooser, 19, and another student, 19-year-old Jayden Musili, were pronounced dead at the scene of the crash Sunday morning.

Two other Indiana State football players, 20-year-old Omarian Dixon and 19-year-old John Moore, were passengers. They were freed from the vehicle and transported to a hospital to be treated for "serious injuries," Vigo County Sheriff John Plasse said Monday.

Police said in a crash report Wednesday that Eubanks was the driver of the 2008 Toyota Camry involved in the crash.

The report said that unsafe speed was a primary factor, but heavy rain and thunderstorms, resulting in about 4 inches of standing water on the road, also likely led to the crash.

Police were called to the scene at 1:36 a.m. EDT Sunday. They stated that the vehicle was had crashed into a tree and was on fire when they arrived. They said Eubanks, VanHooser and Musili were unable to escape the car and were pronounced dead at the scene.

The report said that Moore told officers the group was traveling back to their Terre Haute, Ind., campus from a house party in Bloomington, Ind. Moore also told them all occupants of the vehicle were drinking at the party, and that the car was traveling at 90 mph.

A witness, who was driving by at the time of the incident, told police he stopped his car and was able to drag one passenger out of the vehicle. He told officers he then requested help from another driver in the area, who helped him drag another passenger from the vehicle.

Moore and Dixon are hospitalized at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis. Indiana State said Monday that they are out of intensive care, but remain in serious condition.

Indiana State is scheduled to start the 2022 football season with a game against North Alabama at 6 p.m. EDT Sept. 1 in Terre Haute.