(HAMMOND, Ind.) An 18-year-old north suburban woman who police said may have been texting while driving was killed Tuesday in a crash with a semi truck on the Indiana Toll Road.
Emma Beth Pincus Hartman was driving a Jeep Liberty eastbound on the Toll Road (I-90) just across the Illinois state line about 11:13 a.m. when the SUV crossed the median into westbound traffic, a statement from Indiana State Police said.
A westbound semi was not able to avoid the Jeep, and struck the driver’s side of the vehicle in the far right lane, State Police said.
Hartman may have been texting or reading a text on her cell phone at the time of the crash, police said in the statement.
Hartman, of the 3500 Block of Merle Lane in Glenview, had to be cut out of the wreckage and was pronounced dead at the scene, according to police and the Lake County Coroner’s office.
The 66-year-old Tennessee man driving the semi was not hurt, police said.
Traffic was diverted off the tollway at Indianapolis Boulevard for about four hours as crews investigated.
