WAYNESVILLE, N.C. (AP) — A driver died after driving around a barricade on a hurricane-damaged North Carolina highway that has become a symbol of The destruction of Helenethen left the road, officials said.

Photos of Interstate 40 with several lanes washed out by Helene near the Tennessee state line attracted widespread attention in the days following the storm, with the area largely isolated by numerous road closures .

Emergency responders from Tennessee and North Carolina responded to a report of a crash involving a vehicle that left the collapsed road and rolled down an embankment on eastbound I-40 Saturday evening, according to a news release from the Junaluska Community Volunteer Fire Department.

Crews abseiled down the embankment to reach the vehicle lying about 30 meters from the road, firefighters said. Footage from the scene shows a worker trying to reach the crumpled white vehicle at the bottom of a steep slope covered in rubble. The driver, alone in the vehicle, was extricated and transported to hospital.

The driver, identified as Patricia Mahoney, 63, of Southern Pines, North Carolina, died later that night, according to Sgt. Brandon Miller of the North Carolina State Highway Patrol, who is investigating the cause of the crash. She got onto the highway around the 7 mile marker, headed west in the eastbound lanes and left the road around the 4 mile marker where the road ends. An autopsy is planned. There was no indication why she went around the barricade, Miller said.

The highway has been closed since late September when floodwaters from Hurricane Helene washed out the highway’s eastbound lanes for four long strips along the Pigeon River, but the North Carolina Department of Transportation has said it plans to reopen one lane in each direction by the new year.