Driver convicted in service worker’s death on I-65

CROWN POINT, Ind. — A northwestern Indiana man has been convicted of driving drunk for a crash that killed a worker doing tire repairs on a semitrailer along Interstate 65.

A Lake County jury reached the verdict Tuesday against 66-year-old Jeffery Cleary of Valparaiso. Police arrested Cleary in November 2010 after his SUV crashed into a service truck and fatally crushed 63-year-old Philip Amsden of Hebron between the truck and the semi.

The Times of Munster reports Cleary’s attorney argued passing semitrailers left him without room to merge onto I-65 in Hobart and that the truck and semi were parked too close to the road.

Prosecutors said Cleary’s blood-alcohol level was more than double the state’s 0.08 percent legal limit to drive.

Cleary will be sentenced later.