COLUMBUS, OHIO (WCMH) – Two separate accidents, five minutes apart, resulted in one death, three injuries and a one-mile closure of Interstate 70 West early Thursday morning.

Just before 12:30 a.m. Thursday morning a person who was examining an accident on I-70 westbound, was struck by a car and died. The incident happened at the exit ramp to I-270, at the I-70, I-270 interchange in the Walnut Hills neighborhood.

According to Columbus police at 12:07 a.m., an accident occurred when a 2016 Ford Explorer struck a freeway attenuator, causing disabling damage to the vehicle. The driver of the Explorer, 43-year-old Latosha Jordan, got out to assess the damage. A male passenger remained in the car. Additionally, a witness to the accident entered the highway from a nearby apartment complex to assist Jordan.

At that moment, a 2012 Chevrolet Malibu traveling westbound struck the Ford Explorer, throwing Jordan and the witness off of the initial crash scene. Jordan was pronounced dead after the collision and the witness was taken to Mount Carmel East Hospital with critical injuries.

The driver who hit the Jordan and Jordan’s passenger were also taken to Mount Carmel East with serious, but non-life threatening injuries.

Initially a separate witness from an apartment complex said that a couple stopped to help motorists after the first accident, and one of them was hit, resulting in a second accident.

I70 West, which reopened by 5:45 a.m., was closed between the I70, 270 interchange and the Brice Road exit. Traffic was being routed off at the Brice Road exit while both accidents were under investigation. The eastbound lanes were unaffected.