Trucks crush car, pin woman on I-295 in Camden County

A South Jersey woman was pinned in her car, crushed between two trucks, for over an hour this morning following an eight-vehicle collision on Interstate 295.

Kea Williams, 33, of Magnolia, was takeno Cooper University Hospital with serious injuries below her waist.

The southbound lanes of the I-295 were blocked between exits 27 and 28 until 10:15 a.m. as rescue crews struggled to extricate the woman, troopers conducted an investigation, and highway crews cleared the wreckage.

Williams had just dropped off her young children at a day care center.

She was driving her Ford Escort in the interstate through Haddon Heights at 7:45 a.m. when a tractor-trailer following behind her failed to brake for traffic that had slowed for a construction zone, said Sgt. Stephen Jones, spokesman for the New Jersey State Police.

The tractor-trailer veered to the left and slammed into a concrete barrier. It bounced back into the center lane of traffic and plowed into the rear of Williams' Escort. The impact drove the Escort into the rear of a box truck carrying liquor, Jones said.

The box truck collided with several more vehicles before it came to a stop.

Sandwiched between the two trucks, Williams was pinned by the engine block of her car. Rescue workers pulled her from the wreckage at 8:40 a.m., Jones said.

The driver of the tractor-trailer, Octavio Villegas, 46 of Jersey City, was not injured.

The box truck driver, Jim Sharkey, 53, of Little Egg Harbor, suffered neck and back pain. He was also transported to Cooper, Jones said.

Jones said Villegas would receive a traffic summons for careless driving. Other charges may be forthcoming pending an investigation and an inspection of the truck by state police.