Jury awards $4.25M in Toll Road fatality

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Updated: February 27, 2012 9:57AM

The family of a Malian woman who was burned beyond recognition in a 2007 crash on the Indiana Toll Road received $4.25 million jury award Tuesday in Chicago.

Hawa Sissoko, 28, was killed on May 30, 2007, when she was standing behind her stopped car, for an unknown reason, on the Indiana Toll Road near Chesterton. She and the car were struck by a semi, which caused both to burst into flames. Accident reconstructionists were unable to determine if Sissoko had stopped the car or the car stalled.

Her family filed a civil lawsuit against the truck’s owner Roadway Express of Illinois.

Sissoko, who was a native of the West African country of Mali, had been living in Chicago for about a year when the crash occurred.