A Merrillville woman died in a crash on Interstate 80 in Gary early Saturday morning after a collision with a box truck, police said.
At around 3:50 a.m. on Sept. 7, a two-vehicle crash occurred eastbound on I-80 near the 8.4-mile marker, east of Burr Street and west of Grant Street in Gary, according to a release from the Lowell Post of Indiana State Police.
A preliminary investigation shows that a silver Hyundai Santa Fe rear-ended a white Lazy Boy box truck in the right center lane. Initial indications are that the Hyundai was traveling at a very high rate of speed at the time of the initial impact with the box truck, police said.
The box truck lost control and crashed into the center median wall, knocking down a light pole. The box truck then crossed all lanes of travel before crashing into the right ditch. After the initial impact, the driver of the Hyundai was ejected from the vehicle and the Hyundai continued to drive east for approximately a quarter of a mile before it came to an uncontrolled stop, police said.
The driver of the Hyundai was ejected and passed away at the scene. She has been identified as Darya J. Foster, 25, from Merrillville, Indiana.
Notification to her family was made by the Lake County Coroner’s Office, according to police. The driver and passenger of the box truck were transported to Methodist Northlake Hospital for non-life-threatening injuries.
The roadway was intermittently closed for several hours for crash reconstruction and scene clean-up because of the large crash scene.