Authorities said one person died Monday night in a crash that happened in the westbound lanes of Interstate 70 and involved a mini-van and three semitrailers that left debris and vehicle parts scattered across the interstate.

The crash forced the Ohio State Highway Patrol to shut the highway down for several hours.

Lt D.L. Eck said that Geary E. Fraley, 56, of Covington, Ohio, was killed.

Fraley was driving a mortician's vehicle but contrary to early reports he was not hauling a body at the time of the crash, according to OSP. The vehicle became sandwiched between two semitrailers it was following and a third semitrailer that was trailing the vehicle. The two big rigs slowed for some reason and the third apparently ran over the top of the mortician's vehicle.

Lt. Eck said that Fraley was driving a 2001 Ford Windstar.

"I ran up with an EMT, Charles Graham, a witness, said of the victim. "There was nothing we could do."

An OHP crash reconstruction team from Columbus was called to the scene, and the patrol dispatched a helicopter to take aerial photos as part of the investigation.

Police and rescue crews were dispatched at about 8 p.m. to an area about a mile west of Ohio 503.  Traffic in the eastbound lanes of I-70 was shut down and law enforcement officers diverted vehicles off the interstate and onto U.S 40 from Arlington Road and State Route 503.

The highway re-opened around 1:40 a.m. Tuesday.