The four-vehicle crash was reported around 3:50 p.m. during a traffic backup just west of the Centerville Road exit, according to the Indiana State Police.
Preliminary investigation shows a red eastbound 2015 Volvo semi driven by Harvinder Singh Bhagtana, 21, of Fresno, California, was going too fast for traffic conditions while heading into a construction zone. Traffic at the time was backed up for five or six miles and was slow to stopped for a lane closure up ahead, troopers said. Bhagtana was not able to stop before glancing off the rear corner of a 2016 Acura driven by 21-year-old Nicholas Berry of Naperville, Illinois. Bhagtana’s semi then went into the left lane and struck the rear of a 2009 Audi, driven by Margaret Ryan, 22, of Boston. The impact pushed Ryan’s sport-utility vehicle under the semi in front of her.
Ryan was pronounced dead at the scene. Her passenger, Christine Yip, 25, of St. Louis, was taken to Reid Health Hospital in Richmond, where her injuries are not life-threatening, troopers said.
The driver of the second semi, William Weatherford III, 51, of Palm Coast, Florida, was not injured, and neither were Berry and Bhagtana, who was cited for speed too fast to avoid collision, troopers said.
UPDATE @ 6 p.m.
A fatal crash on Interstate 70 involves two semis and two passenger vehicles, Indiana State Police reported.
The crash happened just before 4 p.m. in a construction zone on east I-70, just west of the Centerville Road exit. According to preliminary investigation, a semi pulling a box trailer was going too fast for traffic conditions, when traffic was backed up five miles and stopped in both east lanes. The semi glanced off a car in front of him before running into a second passenger vehicle in a stopped line of traffic in the left lane. The semi pushed the vehicle under the trailer of the semi in front of it. The driver in that car was killed, and a passenger seriously injured, according to troopers.
Neither driver of the semis was hurt, and there were no injuries in the first car struck.
Eastbound I-70 will remains closed for a undetermined amount of time while troopers investigate.
FIRST REPORT
Eastbound Interstate 70 is closed just west of the Centerville Road exit for a multiple-vehicle crash, Indiana State Police announced.
The Wayne County, Indiana, coroner has been called to the crash reported shortly before 4 p.m., the Palladium-Item reported.
According to the Indiana Department of Transportation, traffic is being diverted onto Indiana 1, and a police officer has been called to that area to help direct traffic. Westbound I-70 also was closed for a short time but since has reopened, the Richmond-based newspaper reported.
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