A New Jersey couple on their way to marriage killed in a chain reaction crash on a highway

A New Jersey couple on their way to their wedding was killed in a fire accident on I-78 in Berks County.

According to Union County officials in New Jersey, Kathryn Schurtz and her fiance, Joseph Kearney, died as a result of the multi-vehicle crash last Wednesday.

State police said a truck-trailer had struck the back of a car triggering a lethal chain reaction, with five utility vehicles and a passenger car.

The couple traveled to Pittsburgh, Kearney's hometown, for their ceremony.

According to his obituary, Schurtz, 35, lived in Jersey City. She was employed as Head of Platform Partnerships for Oracle Data Cloud in New York.

Schurtz grew up in Fanwood, NJ, and graduated from Union Catholic High School in Scotch Plains, New Jersey in 2001. She studied at George Washington University, where she graduated with a degree in arts. Liberals and earned an MBA from Notre Dame.

"We will remember her for her voracious appetite for reading, her love of cooking and her new pioneering adventures with Joseph," she reads in her obituary.

She is survived by her parents, Joseph and Karen; his sister, Kimberly; his sister and brother-in-law, Joanne and Kevin Schwoer, and his 3-month-old nephew, Landon Schwoer.

Schurtz's mother was a former councilor in Fanwood, New Jersey.

The Fanwood Borough Council has issued the following statement on its Facebook page:

"Our thoughts go to former Fanwood City Councilor Karen Schurtz, who lost her daughter and future son-in-law in a car accident while they were traveling to their wedding last week … We are really sorry. "