Injured Woman Dies After Being Trapped Between IN Toll Booth, SUV

HAMMOND, IN —A woman has died four days after she was injured while pinned between a toll booth and her car on the Indiana Toll Road. The Northwest Indiana Times said 40-year-old Luciana Ortiz, of Ostego, Michigan was pronounced dead on Wednesday from complications of mechanical asphyxiation, the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office reported, due to being trapped between the toll both and her car on the night of Dec. 8.

Indiana State Police said in a release that Trooper Alaa Hamed responded to a personal injury crash at 9:20 p.m. at the toll booth in Hammond at the I-80 West Point Toll Plaza near mile marker 1. That's where ISP said the trooper found the trapped, unresponsive and unconscious woman between the drivers side of her silver Buick SUV and the booth.

Police said Hamed tried to move the car while a bystander and toll attendant held on to the woman, and she was eventually freed.

Hamed reassessed the woman's vitals and once again found that she didn't have a pulse, so he retrieved his department AED (Automated External Defibrillator), applied the AED pads to her body, which couldn't locate a pulse. That's when Hamed began CPR and that's when Hammond EMS arrive. The AED activated twice, ending up resuscitating the woman, ISP said.

According to police, she was taken to Franciscan Health Hospital in Hammond and later airlifted to Christ Advocate Medical Center in Illinois with serious injuries.

Witness told ISP that the female had taken a long time to pay her toll at the electronic pay booth and they saw her open her door to get something that fell on the ground (ended up being her debit card). Police said the woman put her leg out between her SUV and the toll booth while continuing to search as the Buick lurched forward and the woman got wedged "between the open car door and the yellow waist high toll box that the toll gate is mounted to," an ISP release said.

IPS said a witness pushed the help button at the toll gate and tried to open the passenger door but the door was locked, while the woman was awake and speaking but the car moved forward two more times, each time wedging her further into the box.

RELATED: Woman Fatally Crushed In RivCo Fast Food Drive-Thru

This incident happened just hours after police in Beaumont, California said a woman died after getting crushed by her car in a drive-thru Dec. 8. The woman died at the hospital after suffering fatal injuries at McDonald's. It was not clear why the woman exited her vehicle, police said.

More details and updates: The NWI Times

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