The woman was a passenger in a Mercedes Benz that collided with a Mitsubishi on Monday night.
A young woman died Monday night when she was thrown from the car in which she was a passenger in a collision with another car in the westbound lanes of Interstate 80, just miles from New Jersey's border with Pennsylvania, New Jersey State Police report.
Peiran Chi, 20, of Ithaca, New York, was a passenger in a Mercedes Benz that collided with a Mitsubishi shortly before 10 p.m. on the highway in Knowlton Township, state police Major Mach Jackson said Tuesday morning.
She was a rear passenger in the Mercedes. The other two occupants - the driver and a front passenger - suffered minor injuries. The driver and sole occupant of the second car involved, a Mitsubishi, also suffered minor injuries. Their injuries did not require hospitalization, Jackson said.
The circumstances of the crash remain under investigation, but Jackson did say that after the initial impact, the Mercedes spun out of control, hit a guardrail, flipped over and struck several trees off the highway. He said the Mercedes caught fire, but the driver and front passenger escaped before the fire ignited.
Chi, who was thrown out of the Mercedes after the initial impact with the Mitsubishi, was pronounced dead at the scene, Jackson said.
The westbound lanes of the highway remained closed for about three hours, but traffic in the eastbound lanes stayed open during that time.
I-80 accident closes westbound lanes of highway
It's too early in the investigation to say which driver may have been at fault, the police major said. State police are not identifying the drivers or the other passenger in the Mercedes at this point.
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