Kent State Student Killed in Crash

A student was killed in a car crash near Columbus Tuesday.

Rachael Carlina Woodruff, 19, of Loveland, northeast of Cincinnati, died Tuesday after her car was struck by a van that crossed three lanes, the median and a rest-stop exit ramp on Interstate 71 Tuesday afternoon, according to the Delaware County Ohio Highway Patrol post.

Woodruff, a sophomore at Kent State, was an intervention specialist major in the Kent State College of Education, Health and Human Services at the Kent campus, according to the university.

The university is on spring break this week, and Woodruff was reportedly driving home for break when the crash happened.

Woodruff's Pontiac was struck by Joshua T. Morris, 32, of Streetsboro, who "became distracted by his cell phone and lost control of his vehicle," according to the highway patrol.

Morris, who was uninjured, was driving northbound in a 2006 Chevy cargo van owned by Dara Toy Company of Macedonia. The crash happened at about 2:30 p.m. Tuesday near the 129-mile marker of I-71. Woodruff was pulling out of the southbound rest area when Morris struck her Pontiac.

Delaware paramedics took Woodruff to Grant Medical Center in Columbus, where she died shortly after the crash.

No charges have been filed against Morris and are pending review by the Delaware County Prosecutor's Office, according to the highway patrol.