Chicago Woman Killed in Weekend Crash Outside Mattoon

A Chicago woman was killed in a crash involving her car and a semi on I-57 near Mattoon over the weekend.

The crash happened at 12:10pm Saturday and resulted in the death of 25-year-old Shakira Smith. State police report Smith's car was northbound on I-57, 1-1/2 miles north of the Illinois 16 interchange. Witness reports said Smith swerved from the left lane into the right lane and went off the roadway, striking a guardrail. Smith's car then got re-routed and crossed both northbound lanes, going into the median, then went up onto the southbound lanes, directly into the path of a rig driven by 45-year-old Christopher Caughron of Galesburg, and semi struck Smith's car.

Mattoon police and Lake Land College Police assisted state police while I-57 was closed and traffic re-routed until about 4:45pm.

Smith was pronounced dead at the scene. Caughron was taken to an area hospital for observation, but was not reported injured. No citations were issued.