Couple killed in crash driving to their wedding

HAMBURG, Pa. – Family and friends are mourning a couple killed in a fiery chain reaction crash while driving to their wedding in Pittsburgh.

Kathryn Schurtz, 35, and her fiance Joseph Kearney were driving on Interstate 78 on Wednesday when they encountered heavy traffic from an earlier crash, state police said. A tractor-trailer was unable to stop and police said it pushed the couple’s vehicle into another tractor-trailer. Their vehicle and two trucks caught fire. Schurtz and Kearney were killed and three others were hurt, state police said.

Schurtz lived in Jersey City, New Jersey, and was head of platform partnerships for Oracle Data Cloud in New York City.

Her obituary says she graduated from Union Catholic High School in Scotch Plains, New Jersey. She then attended George Washington University, where she received her liberal arts degree before earning an MBA from Notre Dame.

Her mother was a former Fanwood, New Jersey, councilwoman, according to the town’s Facebook page.

Schurtz “will be remembered for her voracious appetite for reading, love of cooking, and trailblazing new adventures with Joseph,” the obituary reads.

Her funeral will take place Tuesday in Pittsburgh.

A woman identifying herself as Kearney’s aunt said in a Facebook post: “They were truly the brightest shining lights snuffed out way too soon.”

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This story has been corrected to show the groom’s last name is spelled Kearney, not Kearny.