A Whitehall Township woman died in a tragic motor vehicle accident Friday night on the Northeast Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

The accident and a tractor trailer fire happened simultaneously between 6-7 o'clock Friday, shutting down both lanes of the turnpike between the Mahoning Valley and Lehigh Valley interchanges for several hours. Preliminary details of the incidents were reported in Saturday's TIMES NEWS.The crash claimed the life of 29-year-old Kathrine Jean Skinner. She was pronounced dead at the scene after her vehicle was rammed from behind by another car during a traffic jam that occurred in Washington Township.Skinner was one of hundreds of northbound turnpike motorists held up Friday night after a tractor-trailer hauling bananas crashed north of the Lehigh Tunnel in East Penn Township and caught fire at 6:10 p.m.State police at the Pocono barracks said Skinner's car caught fire after the impact. Motorists tried to free her but were forced back from the car because of high and intense flames.The driver of the car that slammed into Skinner's vehicle has not yet been identified.The Bowmanstown and Parryville Fire Departments were dispatched. Reportedly the vehicle was fully involved in fire when the firefighters reached the scene.