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A 33-week pregnant, Katharyn "Kayte" M. (Kocher) Derhammer, had stopped her 2011 Nissan Rogue in heavy traffic in the right lane of Interstate 99 North near mile marker 76.6 in Benner Township when she was rear-ended at a high rate of speed by a 2012 GMC Yukon driven by 31-year-old Christopher J. Sauders of Boalsburg, PSP Rockview Howard Sweeny detailed in the release.
A 2023 Ram driven by a 76-year-old man from Hanover Township moved to avoid the crash — which forced Derhammer's Nissan into the rear of a 2024 Ford Edge driven by a 58-year-old woman from Lee Center, New York — that propelled the Ford into the Ram, Sweeny explained.
The crash happened at 6:07 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 6.
Derhammer was taken by helicopter to UPMC Danville where she underwent several emergency surgeries, but ultimately both she and her infant son died, according to PSP and her church.
Everyone involved in the crash were wearing seatbelts and no one else was injured, as detailed in the PSP release.
I-99 was closed until around 11 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 6, according to 511PA.
Charges against Sauders are pending the results of the PSP investigation, troopers told Daily Voice.
The Centre County DA's office has also been contacted as part of the investigation.
PSP was assisted at the scene by Undine Fire Company, Bellefonte Fire Company, Alpha Fire Company, Life Link EMS, Mt. Nittany Health Group, PennDOT, and Rich’s Amoco.
Kayte was a Warriors Mark native who worked at Weis Market, according to her Facebook profile. She married the love of her life, Walt M. Derhammer III, on Sept. 21, 2019 — meaning the crash was 15 days before their fifth anniversary.
The couple had recently announced they were expecting a baby boy.
Her community was rallying for her and her son to pull through, but now they are praying for her surviving family.
Funeral details and additional information about Kayte's life were unavailable at the time of publishing. Her family is invited to share those details with Daily Voice by emailing jpikora@dailyvoice.com.
This is one of three crashes where a fetus was killed in a crash in Central Pennsylvania that Daily Voice has reported on in three days. Click here to read our article on 20-year-old Nadia Startzman who was approximately 16 weeks pregnant when she was ejected in a crash on Saturday, Sept. 7, and click here to read about "an intentional crash" that killed a fetus and injured an infant along with six adults, police explained in an affidavit of probable cause obtained by Daily Voice.
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