KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A tractor-trailer driver died after a crash on southbound I-29 just south of Barry Road, shutting down the interstate for hours on Friday night.
Maj. Greg Dull with the Kansas City Police Department said a tractor-trailer heading south on I-29 steered it onto the shoulder. Two detectives saw the semi and stopped behind it to help. Two civilian members of the department also stopped to help.
Dull said detectives told the tractor-trailer driver to get back into his truck.
The driver tried to get back into the truck, but a second tractor-trailer hit the police car, pushing it into the driver.
The driver died at the scene.
“We’re going to do a very thorough investigation and don’t want to jump to conclusions,” Dull said in a press briefing at the scene. “It’s just a sad deal.”
The back door on the victim’s semi-tractor trailer was open, but officers aren’t certain when that happened — if it happened as he drove, causing him to pull over, or if he opened it after pulling over.
Arriving officers were concerned about the driver’s safety along the busy interstate, which has a 65-mph speed limit in that section.
“The officers told him, ‘Get back in, we’ll close it up for you,’” Dull said. “Before he could get back … that’s when (the police) vehicle was struck from behind.”
The interstate was shut down from Tiffany Springs Parkway south to 72nd Street after the crash. It reopened just before 10 p.m. Friday.
---
