HAMMOND, Ind. (CBS) -- One person was killed in a horrific crash involving a car and two semis on the Borman Expressway in Northwest Indiana Thursday afternoon.

The crash happened around 2 p.m. on I-80/94 eastbound at the Columbia Avenue overpass between Calumet Avenue and Indianapolis Boulevard – near the boundary of Munster and Hammond.

A car and two semi-trailer trucks were involved.

The scene was tense as first responders had to extricate several people from one of the cars involved – after they were trapped under a semi.

Indiana State Police said a passenger in the car – a Kia – was killed. The driver and a child in the same car were being treated Thursday night for very serious injuries that were described as potentially life-threatening.

The wrecked Kia was left severely mangled between the two semis. Troopers said one semi-truck hit the Kia from behind – sending it underneath a different 18-wheeler.

All eastbound lanes on I-80/94 were shut down after the crash, and a gapers' delay slowed down westbound traffic all the way to I-65. Heavy traffic was also reported on the Tri-State Tollway (I-294) during the Thursday afternoon rush after the crash.

Reconstructing the crash and cleaning up the scene took several hours – keeping traffic at a crawl for much of the afternoon and evening commute.