New Haven — A woman who fell off an I-91 bridge and died after stopping to help the victims of a hit-and-run crash early Thursday morning will be remembered as a hero, her family said.

Lauren A. Mohr, 34, had just finished her shift as a waitress at Barcelona Restaurant and Wine Bar in New Haven and was on her way home to Wallingford when she saw the crash, her stepmother, Joan Mohr, vice president for admissions and financial aid at Quinnipiac University, said in a statement released through the university.

She pulled over, called 911 and was waiting with the crash victims when she apparently stepped back, falling over a concrete wall and off the highway bridge, plummeting 40 feet to her death, state police said.

State police said Thursday that they were investigating the tragedy, but that another vehicle traveling close to the side of the highway might have caused Mohr to step back and slip on the snow and ice.

"I think it's safe to presume that she was trying to get out of the way of a vehicle," Trooper Kelly Grant said.

Mohr was taken to Yale-New Haven Hospital, where she was pronounced dead. Her family members said they were notified early Thursday morning.

"Lauren was courageous and optimistic, and had faced a lot of challenges in her life, which made her a caring and wise person," her stepmother and her father, Lawrence Mohr, said in a statement. "Friends and family would seek her advice and she will be remembered as our hero."

The initial accident happened about 12:30 a.m. Thursday near Exit 7 of I-91 north, according to state police at the Troop I barracks in Bethany. A vehicle traveling north crashed into the vehicle directly in front of it, causing both cars to spin out, state police said. The first vehicle fled the scene, but was later found in East Haven.

None of the vehicle occupants was injured.

Mohr happened upon the crash scene shortly after.

Mohr, a former Quinnipiac University student, worked as a temporary aide in the school's undergraduate admissions office in addition to her job as a waitress, her family said. She graduated from Sheehan High School in Wallingford and recently received her associate's degree in social work from Middlesex Community College.

Mohr was planning to continue studying social work at Southern Connecticut State University in the fall. She also had served for four years in the Air Force, had trained as a medical technician and was an organ donor, according to her family.

Lynn Bushnell, vice president for public affairs at Quinnipiac, said that the university was saddened to learn of Mohr's death.

"The university would like to extend its sincerest condolences to the Mohr family and ask that you continue to keep Lauren's family and her many friends in your thoughts and prayers," she said.

In addition to her father and stepmother, Mohr is survived by her sister, Arwen, and her family in Martinez, Calif.; and her mother, Diana, in Maryland. Funeral arrangements have not yet been made, her family said.

A similar fatal accident happened in Hartford in 2012, when Richard Herron of Maryland stopped to help an accident victim on a wet I-84.

A tractor-trailer approached in the predawn darkness, so Herron leapt over a Jersey barrier to avoid being hit. He didn't realize that there was a 35-foot drop to a gravel lot on the other side.

He was conscious at the scene but later died at St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center in Hartford.

State police tweeted a warning to motorists Thursday morning: People should refrain from getting out of their cars when on a highway, they said.

If a vehicle becomes disabled, the motorist should pull as far to the right as possible and call 911, they said.