A Wisconsin man faces multiple charges stemming from a 2016 wreck on Interstate 65 in Jackson County that resulted in the death of an 8-year-old child.

Ernest John Pagels Jr., 54, of Milwaukee was arrested Wednesday on a Jackson Circuit Court warrant by the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department.

Charges against Pagels include reckless homicide, a Level 5 felony; three Level 6 felony counts of obstructing traffic resulting in serious bodily injury; and a misdemeanor charge of reckless driving.

He was booked into the Jackson County Jail in Brownstown at 7:42 p.m. without bond.

The three-vehicle wreck occurred at 3:50 p.m. Nov. 12, 2016, on Interstate 65 near the Crothersville exit at the 38.5-mile marker.

According to court documents, Pagels was driving from his home in Wisconsin to Florida for a job interview. He was southbound on I-65 when he slowed down and came to a stop in the right travel lane.

Pagels told police a vehicle was following him too closely, and he became agitated, so he slowed down to allow a van to pass him. That van was being driven by April K. Bickel of Elwood, who told police she was traveling to southern Indiana with her four children to look at a puppy.

As Bickel was slowing down to go around Pagels, a third vehicle, driven by Jeffery Lynn Ireland, who was driving home to North Carolina after an audition for “America’s Got Talent” in Chicago, rear-ended Bickel’s van.

The force of the impact from Ireland’s vehicle caused the van to go off of the west side of the interstate and down an embankment.

Crothersville Police Department Officer Matt Browning was the first to arrive on the scene followed by Indiana State Police troopers Tia Deaton, Michael Thiron and Matt Holley. Also responding were Jackson County Emergency Medical Services and Crothersville-Vernon Township Volunteer Fire Department.

Thiron said he approached Pagels’ vehicle, which was not hit during the wreck, to ask him what had happened.

Pagels told police he was the cause for the crash but that the other two drivers were driving recklessly, according to court documents.

Holley determined the primary cause of the wreck to be reckless driving by Pagels because he was driving at an “unreasonably low rate of speed endangering the safety of others and blocking the proper flow of traffic.”

“Coming to a stop in the travel lanes of Interstate 65 in any location creates dangerous hazards for other drivers due to the speed other vehicles are traveling and the amount of traffic on Interstate 65,” Holley said.

A contributing factor to the severity of the wreck was distracted driving and speeding by Ireland, Holley said.

Three of the four children in Bickel’s van were airlifted from the scene to Norton Children’s Hospital in Louisville. Another was transported to Norton by ambulance.

One child, an 8-year-old girl, died from her injuries Nov. 26, 2016.