CHESTERTON — Shock and grief traveled quickly through the halls of Chesterton High School on Wednesday as athletes, parents and coaches learned of the crash that claimed the life of teacher and coach Todd Talbert.

Talbert, a math teacher and freshman girls basketball coach, was traveling with his 16-year-old daughter, Katie, and her friend Angela Hullinger when they were hit head-on by a tractor-trailer on Indiana 1 in southeastern Indiana’s Dearborn County, near Cincinnati, just after 1 p.m. Wednesday.

The two girls, en route to a basketball camp, were transported to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.

Late Wednesday, Susan Talbert said from her daughter’s hospital room that Katie is badly bruised from her seat belt, but suffered no broken bones or life-threatening injuries.

Hullinger, she said, was upgraded from critical to serious condition.

“She suffered some serious injuries,” Talbert said. “But she’s hanging in there.”

As friends and co-workers learned of the loss, they struggled to put into words the mark Todd Talbert had left on them, the school and the community.

Westchester Intermediate School Principal Tim McGinty recalled Talbert as man “dedicated to kids.

“He was a hard man not to like.”

As a fellow math teacher and coach, Steve Kearney spent a great deal of time around the Talbert family.

Susan Talbert is a science teacher at Chesterton High School.

Katie is a runner on the track team and Todd an assistant coach.

“He was a great friend,” a stunned Kearney recalled.

As much dedication as he gave to the many athletes he’d coached in basketball, track and football, and the many students he helped in the classroom, his family always came first, Kearney said.

“He was a committed family person. His family was always most important.”

Mindful of the balance between working and teaching, Todd followed the interest of his girls, getting into coaching as they grew interested in sports, Kearney said.

Talbert’s younger daughter, Kristin, an eighth-grader, was playing AAU basketball in the Chesterton gym when she learned of the crash that claimed her father’s life.

Family members arrived to take her home and staff and coaches helped comfort teammates.

No details were available regarding funeral arrangements.