Taken into custody at her Pine Creek Township home on Thursday morning, Kari Greenaway arrives at the Lycoming Regional police substation in Jersey Shore, where she was arraigned on charges related to a February fatal crash on Route 220. PHILIP HOLMES/Sun-Gazette

JERSEY SHORE — Katie Lisa Greenaway, 53, a woman who has had a lifelong battle with mental illness, was arrested Thursday morning on charges stemming from the Route 220 crash in mid-February that claimed the life of a Chicago, Illinois motorist.

Driving a 2012 Mercedes Benz, Greenaway, a resident of Pine Creek Township in Clinton County, was traveling south in the northbound passing lane when her vehicle and another driven by Michael Kurelja, 38, collided about 6:45 p.m. on Feb. 17, Lycoming Regional police Patrolman Jared Mahosky said in an affidavit.

Kurelja, driving a Subaru Forester, was killed instantly in the crash, Mahosky said, adding that an autopsy confirmed that the driver died of “blunt force trauma injuries.”

Following the violent collision, just west of Nichols Run Road in Porter Township, Greenaway’s vehicle “overturned, rolled up on top of guide rails” and then came off the rails and struck a utility trailer being pulled by a pickup truck, Mahosky said.

Kurelja was traveling in the left northbound lane, and “evidence showed he attempted to maneuver out of the way of Greenaway to avoid the collision by turning his wheels to the right, but was unsuccessful in avoiding the catastrophic collision,” Mahosky said.

Greenaway’s vehicle traveled a total of 384 feet before it caught fire, the officer said. Using a knife, Greenaway cut her seat belt, climbed out of her vehicle and ran across the highway where she was struck by the side mirror of an oncoming vehicle, police said.

When asked by police why she was out in the middle of the highway, she stated she was “trying to get home,” the affidavit stated. She was treated at an area hospital for two fractured ribs.

Mahosky said in the affidavit that investigators learned Greenaway has struggled with mental health issues since she was in her 20s, and in December she “decided to stop taking her medication for (her condition) because she believed the condition was in remission.”

The officer said Greenaway’s caseworker told police that “her mental health has steadily declined” since then.

Police also learned that before the fatal crash, Greenaway was “initially traveling north in the southbound lanes of Route 220” before exiting at the Thomas Street interchange, Mahosky said. From there, Greenaway “entered the northbound off-ramp and drove south in the northbound passing lane at a high rate of speed,” sideswiping two other vehicles before colliding head-on with Kurelja’s car.

Police said Thursday afternoon that they had no evidence that Greenaway was attempting to commit suicide on Route 220.

Taken into custody at her home, Greenaway was arraigned before District Judge Denise Dieter on felony charges of third-degree murder, homicide by vehicle and accidents involving death or personal injury plus three misdemeanor charges of recklessly endangering another person and three summary offenses.

During the arraignment, Greenaway made several statements, telling the judge that on the night of the crash, “traffic was so heavy, I was terrified. It was scaring me.”

Fighting back tears, Greenaway said she “was confused” that night.

“I don’t want to go to prison,” she said. “I’m devastated by this,” she added.

Greenaway said she had suffered from inhaling “noxious fumes from putting my slippers in a microwave, which was in my bathtub.”

Mahosky told Dieter that Greenaway was charged by police in Clinton County with DUI in September. He also informed the judge that Pine Creek Township police responded to her home in July when she reportedly was “acting homicidal and suicidal.” At that incident, she told an officer that she wanted to kill someone.

There was also another DUI incident involving Greenaway in February, Mahosky told the judge during the proceeding. It was unknown if this case occurred before or after the fatal crash.

Dieter ordered Greenaway to the Lycoming County Prison on no bail.