It was late and it was cold and it was not long after they'd swung around the southern edge of Lake Michigan when the night transformed to a winter hellscape: snow storm, high winds, low visibility, black ice, white knuckles.
It was still this side of midnight on that lonesome stretch of Indiana interstate when these two college pals, let's call them Jack and Mike because those are their names, saw the vehicle changing lanes in front of them fly off the Indiana Toll Road, across the right shoulder, down an embankment, into a ditch.
Jack Zagrocki of Pittsburgh and Mike Oblich of Erie, students at Notre Dame returning to campus after spring break, had landed at O'Hare from Fort Lauderdale only hours earlier. They were still in their shorts and Florida beach wear, everything but those helmets that hold the two beer cans with the little hose, which is key.
