A woman afflicted with Alzheimer's disease stopped her car in the left lane of the New Jersey Turnpike this morning in Burlington County, triggering a fiery crash that left her dead and closed the highway for more than three hours.
Ellen J. Liedtka, 67, had been reported missing by her family on Monday afternoon from her Mercer County home.
About 6:10 a.m. this morning, Liedtka was driving her 2001 Mercury Sable southbound through Westampton when she either stopped or slowed down in the left passing lane, said Sgt. Stephen Jones, a state police spokesman.
A 2009 Subaru hit the rear of the Mercury, pushing it into the center lane. Then a tractor-trailer slammed into the Mercury, knocking it into a concrete median divider, where it burst into flames.
Troopers arrived moments after the crash. They had been previously dispatched to the scene because a 911 caller had reported the Mercury stopped in the left lanes of traffic without its lights on, Jones said.
The troopers used portable fire extinguishers to try to put out the blaze but were unable to knock down the flames.
Liedtka was pronounced dead at the scene by an official with the Burlington County medical examiner's office.
The driver of the Subaru, Bernard Pittinsky, 78, of Baldwin, N.Y., and his wife were not injured. The driver of the tractor-trailer, Jhonger A. Javiera, 43, of Providence, R.I. was also uninjured, Jones said.
The turnpike's southbound lanes were closed until 9:45 a.m. and troopers diverted traffic off the road at Exit 5.
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