AUBURN, Ind. (WISH) — An Indianapolis driver died Wednesday afternoon when the car she was driving swerved for stopped traffic in an I-69 construction zone and her car hit a semitractor-trailer, Indiana State Police say.
Mia Stevens, 22, died in the crash that happened about 2:15 p.m. Wednesday on I-69 at the DeKalb County Road 11A interchange. That’s about a half-hour drive north of downtown Fort Wayne in northern Indiana.
A passenger in the 2008 Ford Edge that Stevens was driving, Meghan Houston, 22, of Indianapolis, suffered critical injuries and was taken to Parkview Regional Medical Center in Fort Wayne.
A state police news release says the northbound stretch of interstate in that area has a lane closure for bridge work being done north of the interchange. Traffic was stopped in both lanes at the time due to the construction and merging traffic.
Before the crash, investigators think, the car Stevens was driving swerved abruptly from the passing lane toward the driving lane to avoid a collision. That’s when the driver’s side of the car struck the rear of a 2024 Volvo semitractor-trailer stopped in the driving lane.