A one-car crash on I-88 left a woman dead late Sunday afternoon and a DeKalb resident and a another man critically injured, Illinois State Police said Monday.

Mechelle Fritz, 21, of Sauk Village, the right front passenger, died from injuries suffered in the crash. Steven B. Power, 18, 902 Southmoor Drive, another passenger in the car, is listed in critical condition at Rockford Memorial Hospital.

Jeffrey L. Reeves, 19, Crete, the car’s driver, is listed in critical condition at Saint Anthony Medical Center in Rockford. None are NIU students.

Reeves’ car was heading west on I-88 about a mile east of DeKalb just before 4 p.m. Sunday, said Illinois State Police Sgt. William Leach.

The driver of another car also heading west told police that Reeves’ car came up behind them at a high rate of speed and swerved into the median between the west and eastbound lanes, possibly to avoid rear-ending the other car, he said.

Reeves tried to pull his car back into the lane, over-corrected his steering and the car swerved back across both westbound lanes, police said. Reeves’ car went through a fence on the side of the road, plunged into a ditch where it hit a culvert and rolled over, Leach said.

Fritz was pronounced dead on the scene while Power and Reeves were flown by helicopter to Rockford hospitals.

DeKalb firefighters and Illinois State Police could not remove Fritz’s body from the car until it was towed out of the 15- to 20-feet deep ditch, said DeKalb County Coroner Dennis Miller.

Power’s family could not be reached for comment.

Preliminary reports did not indicate if Fritz, Power and Reeves were wearing seatbelts, police said.

“You can have a car run off into a culvert and not one gets hurt,” Leach said. “If a person’s wearing a seatbelt it might not be so dangerous.”