A two-vehicle crash near mile marker 9 on northbound Interstate 79 in Whiteley Township left a 26-year-old Texas woman dead shortly after noon on Wednesday, temporarily shutting down a large stretch of the highway in Greene County. The collision involved a hatchback and a Chevrolet Tahoe, and the closure snarled travel along one of southwestern Pennsylvania's main north-south corridors for the better part of the afternoon.
Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Kalee Barnhart of the Waynesburg barracks said emergency units responded shortly after noon, and the Greene County Coroner's Office pronounced the victim dead at the scene at 12:48 p.m., according to Observer-Reporter. The coroner's office identified the victim as 26-year-old Robbi Bennett, who lived in Texas, per WPXI. Pennsylvania State Police confirmed that one person died in the crash, though further details about how the collision unfolded were not immediately available.
Highway Shut Down for Roughly 90 Minutes
PennDOT closed northbound I-79 between Exit 7 at Kirby/Garard's Fort and Exit 14 at Masontown/Waynesburg as crews worked the scene, with the road closure beginning around 1:30 p.m. and the highway reopening around 3 p.m., per the same Observer-Reporter account. That stretch spans a significant portion of southern Greene County and serves as the primary route for traffic moving through the rural corridor. The closure forced drivers to detour through local roads for the better part of the afternoon before the interstate reopened.
Crash information beyond the basic timeline and vehicles involved was not immediately available, and the exact sequence of events that led to the collision remains unclear. Investigators have not yet released the official cause and manner of death, which is pending further review from the coroner's office and an ongoing state police reconstruction investigation, the Observer-Reporter reported.
Crash Adds to a County Already Trending the Wrong Way
The fatality lands amid a broader — if modest — rise in highway deaths across Greene County. The county recorded six motor vehicle traffic fatalities in 2025, up from five in 2024, even as statewide traffic deaths in Pennsylvania fell to 1,047 last year, an 80-death drop from 2024 and the lowest annual total since record-keeping began in 1928, according to the Observer-Reporter's analysis. Lane departure crashes remained the leading cause of fatal collisions across PennDOT District 12 in 2025, accounting for 48 of the district's 81 total traffic deaths across Fayette, Greene, Washington, and Westmoreland counties.
Wednesday's crash also occurred along a corridor undergoing active roadwork. PennDOT District 12 has been overseeing a $45.9 million infrastructure project spanning 11 miles of I-79 from Waynesburg to Marianna, involving roadway paving and active lane restrictions in Greene County. Nightly ramp closures at Exit 14 in Franklin Township have also been in place since July as part of scheduled summer maintenance.
What Happens Next
Under Pennsylvania law, drivers involved in collisions resulting in injury, death, or towable vehicle damage are required to immediately report the crash to police, and investigating officers must submit a formal police crash report to PennDOT within 15 days. That report will become part of the official record as troopers continue piecing together what happened on the highway Wednesday. For now, the cause of the crash and the condition of the other driver involved remain open questions awaiting the results of that investigation.
