A man from Hammond was killed on Saturday night after the car he was traveling in was involved in an accident with a bus carrying Saint Francis players, trainers, and coaches returning from a game in Illinois. Kevin Donley, the Saint Francis football coach who was not on the bus involved in the accident on Interstates 80/90, said no one on the bus was injured. Joshua Walberg, 21, was killed.
Donley said on Saturday that he heard from the coaches on board, “It was a couple that got on the turnpike, and it looked like there was activity going on in the car, an argument or whatever. And they hit one of the guard rails on one side, went clear across into the other one, and kind of spun out and the bus hit it.”
According to police, Walberg was arguing with his girlfriend, 21-year-old Shawnna Popenhagen, when he grabbed the steering wheel as she was driving, triggering the accident. Popenhagen was transported to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, Illinois with “incapacitating injuries,” according to police. There is no word on her condition, but she was wearing a seat belt, and Walberg was not.
According to Donley, the bus he was traveling in with other coaches and players, ahead of the bus involved in the accident, pulled off the road in LaPorte and unloaded, then the bus returned to the site of the crash to return passengers to the oasis. A second bus arrived to take the rest of the players home, all arrived back in Fort Wayne at around 2:30 am.
