A 19-year-old woman from Rosemount, who was about to start her sophomore year at Creighton University in Omaha, was killed Monday in a multivehicle crash on Interstate 80 in Omaha.
Joan Ocampo-Yambing was in the back seat of a Toyota Prius with three other Creighton students on I-80 when a semitrailer truck driver failed to notice that traffic had slowed down. The truck struck the back of the Prius, according to a news release from Omaha police.
The semi then hit another car and came to rest on top of it. That car hit the back of a roll-off trailer being pulled by another semi, police said.
The four students in the Prius and two people in the other car were taken to the hospital. Ocampo-Yambing died there. The others had injuries ranging from serious to critical, police said.
The crash happened shortly before 10 a.m. The Omaha World Herald reported Monday that traffic on I-80 was backed up with cars headed to see the eclipse.
In another story, the newspaper reported that Ocampo-Yambing was a computer science major who would have started her sophomore year this week. She tweeted last week about self-publishing a book of her poetry.
More than 800 people showed up at the Creighton campus Monday night for a memorial service for her.
Pat Pheifer
