'Hoosier Millionaire' winner killed in accident after show

ELWOOD -- A man who announced plans to buy a car with his $57,000 in winnings from a televised lottery game show was run over by a pickup truck and killed a few hours later while he walked to the grocery store that had sold him the winning ticket.\nCarl D. Atwood, 73, was knocked to the ground and suffered a head injury in the accident late Thursday near his home in Elwood, about 40 miles northeast of Indianapolis, police said. He died later at an Indianapolis hospital. \nAtwood had appeared in Thursday's taping of the "Hoosier Millionaire" game show that was to air Saturday night. After the two-hour taping in Indianapolis, Atwood returned home to Elwood with a check for his winnings, said Jack Ross, director of the Hoosier Lottery, which produces the show.\n"We are going to air the show," Ross said Friday. "That is what they (the Atwood family) wanted to do, and at the end of the show, we will have something in memory of Carl Atwood."\nAtwood would have been among winning players invited back to the show to compete for a $1 million grand prize. Ross said the lottery was working with Atwood's family in preparation for the championship show set to tape in three weeks.\n"We will work with the family to make arrangements on how to handle the championship show," he said. "We will certainly have a place on that show for someone who the family chooses to take his place."\nAtwood had won the "Hoosier Millionaire" competition among six players, who are selected from players of scratch-off instant tickets.\nHe won $19,000 in preliminary rounds during Thursday's taping and then tripled his winnings in the final round.\n"I am very thankful," Atwood said on the program. "I must admit that I never expected to be leaving the show with this amount of money. Now I can purchase a very nice car."\nAbout 7 p.m. that night, he was walking to a grocery store one block from his home that had sold him the winning ticket. A pickup truck rounded a corner and struck him, Elwood Police Chief Toby R. Barker said.\n"It was at an unlighted intersection, and Mr. Atwood had dark clothing on, so the driver did not see him before he hit him," Barker said.\nThe driver, an Elwood firefighter, has not been charged. "We feel that our investigation is complete, and this was just an accident," Barker said.\nThe other contestants on the show and their winnings were Joan Norman of Greenwood, $14,000; Martha Bear of North Vernon, $12,000; Guy Vance of Martinsville, $10,000; Sherry Bastain of Evansville, $9,000; and Clarence Zimbro of Charlestown, $7,000.\nSelected to compete on the program that will air Feb. 7 were Linda Roberts of Muncie, James Stepro of Evansville, Theodore Gruell of Connersville, Mary Friedrich of Boonville, Zane Wiley of Martinsville and Judy Gill of Franklin.