State Police investigate a deadly crash Tuesday evening at the intersection of Washington Street and Kittyhawk Avenue, just off the Maine Turnpike, in Auburn.

UPDATE: Greene woman killed in Auburn collision Tuesday night

AUBURN — A woman was killed late Tuesday night when her van slammed into the back of a tractor-trailer on Washington Street, just off the Auburn exit of the Maine Turnpike, according to a news release from state police.

Maine Department of Public Safety spokesman Stephen McCausland said the woman’s vehicle had been spotted traveling at a high rate of speed on the turnpike shortly before the crash. A trooper had just activated his blue lights to pull the vehicle over, McCausland said, when the woman pulled off the turnpike at the Auburn exit. She crashed moments later, police said.

A witness reported that the driver of the van didn’t appear to brake before crashing into the back of the truck.

“I was sitting at the light on Kittyhawk turning left,” Garrett Whalen of Minot said. “Light changed green. I noticed the tractor-trailer start moving toward the breakdown lane and roughly 200 yards behind him was the speeding van being followed closely by the police car. The tractor-trailer had just started to turn onto Kittyhawk to clear the lane completely. I slowed down in the northbound lane and heard the van accelerate harder — never once hit (the) brakes — and watched the van drive underneath the trailer.”

Police did not identify the driver.

Washington Street was expected to be closed at Kittyhawk Avenue into Tuesday morning while Auburn and Maine State Police investigate.