A Porter man was charged Monday with fatally striking a woman just over a year earlier on Interstate 90.
Scott Schuch, 56, is charged with one count of causing death when operating a motor vehicle with an ACE of .08 or more, a Level 4 felony.
He has not been apprehended in the case. When arrested, he is ordered held on a $50,000, or $5,000 cash surety bond.
Sarah Herd, 23, of Chicago, hydroplaned into a concrete median dividing the highway near the toll plaza. A man in a Lexus pulled over to help her. Several cars drove around the crash site.
Minutes later, Schuch, in a Ford F-150, swerved to avoid her Nissan SUV, hitting her as she walked to the Lexus, then hitting that vehicle. Two women in the Lexus were taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Schuch tested .257 in a blood draw.
Indiana State Police responded on Dec. 29, 2023, to the .9-mile marker on I-90. Herd was lying in the left lane “several feet” from the SUV, charges state.
Schuch drove 78 mph in a 45 mph zone five seconds before the crash, according to the affidavit.
“They just stopped and I hit them,” he told state troopers.
Schuch claimed he hadn’t been drinking and refused treatment at the scene.
“No, I’m good,” he said.
Citing back pain, he declined two physical sobriety tests. He consented to a breathalyzer and blood draw. Later, he said his alcohol level “didn’t help,” according to court records.
“I don’t (care) I did something stupid but they shouldn’t have stopped in the middle of the…road,” he said.
Later, he told troopers he made $800 on scrap metal and “bought everyone drinks,” court records state.
Court filings show Schuch was arrested in August 2024 in a Porter County misdemeanor O.W.I. case.
Originally from Wilmette, Herd worked as a Patient Care Technician at Northwestern, according to her obituary. She had dreams of becoming a pediatrician.
mcolias@post-trib.com
