A Florida woman died Tuesday afternoon in a multi-vehicle, chain-reaction crash along Interstate 81 in Schuylkill County.
The crash occurred on the northbound side of the interstate at Mile Marker 98.3 in Pine Grove Township. It shut down the northbound side of the highway for several hours while police and emergency personnel responded to the scene.
According to State Police-Jonestown, Jennifer Perez-Wolfkeil, 66, of Niceville, Florida, was a passenger in a vehicle driven by 69-year-old David Wolfkeil at the time of the crash, just before 4 p.m.
Police say the vehicle driven by Wolfkeil, a Kia Sportage, was headed north on the interstate. Wolfkeil began to enter the passing lane. As his vehicle entered the passing lane, it hit the rear end of another vehicle, a Nissan Kicks.
As those two vehicles came together, another vehicle, a Hyundai Sonata, struck the rear end of Wolfkeil’s vehicle. This impact pushed the Kicks forward and into the rear end of a fourth vehicle, a Honda Civic. The Civic was then pushed forward and into the rear end of a fifth vehicle, identified only as a Pontiac.
All vehicles except for the Pontiac sustained disabling damage.
Wolfkeil and the driver of the Sonata were injured in the crash and transported to Milton S. Hershey Medical Center
Perez-Wolfkeil, who was sitting in the front passenger seat of the vehicle, was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash from injuries she sustained in the incident.
State Police-Jonestown have not released the names of anyone in the other vehicles involved in this crash.
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