A 42-year-old Liberty, Missouri man was struck and killed by a tractor-trailer early Saturday after stepping into the roadway on Interstate 70 in Saline County following a previous crash. The collision happened around 2:43 a.m. on the eastbound lanes near mile marker 62.0, and the man was pronounced dead at the scene.
According to the KSHB 41 Kansas City report, the man had stepped into the roadway after an earlier crash when he was struck by a Freightliner Cascadia, a 2027 model, traveling east on I-70. The truck was driven by a 60-year-old man from Annapolis, Maryland, who was not reported injured, per the Missouri State Highway Patrol. The crash remains under investigation by Missouri State Highway Patrol Troop A.
The death marks the second fatal pedestrian collision on this same stretch of I-70 in less than a week. Just six days earlier, on Sept. 6, a 66-year-old Columbia man was struck and killed by a Freightliner semi-truck while walking in the eastbound right lane at mile marker 70.4 — roughly eight miles from Saturday's crash site, as Hoodline reported at the time. Both incidents occurred late at night in the same rural corridor.
What State Guidance Says About Leaving a Vehicle
The circumstances echo a broader hazard Missouri officials have flagged on interstate highways: motorists who step out of a vehicle after an initial crash or breakdown, only to be struck by passing traffic. The Missouri Department of Transportation advises drivers in that situation to stay inside the vehicle, according to MoDOT. The agency also runs a statewide Motorist Assist program reachable by dialing *55.
State law reinforces that guidance. Under Revised Statutes § 304.151, drivers involved in non-injury crashes must make every reasonable effort to move vehicles off the travel lanes and onto the shoulder to prevent secondary collisions. Separate guidance says pedestrians walking roadways without sidewalks should stay on the left shoulder facing traffic.
A Deadly Stretch Amid Statewide Trends
Missouri recorded a record 148 pedestrian fatalities in 2024, a 16% jump from the year before, even as preliminary overall traffic fatalities were down statewide — and highway safety officials noted a notable share of those victims were motorists who had stepped out of vehicles after an initial crash or breakdown, according to Land Line Media. The source material does not establish a statewide total, interstate count or age breakdown for Missouri pedestrian fatalities in 2025.
Federal crash data has separately identified Missouri's 250-mile I-70 corridor linking Kansas City, Columbia, and St. Louis as the most dangerous highway in the state, tallying 159 crash incidents, as reported by FOX2 St. Louis. The route also carries heavy commercial freight traffic. The available source material does not provide details about a MoDOT I-70 improvement program, including its cost, scope, construction status or completion date.
By early September, Missouri State Highway Patrol Troop A had already logged 39 fatal traffic crashes resulting in 42 fatalities across its 13-county western Missouri jurisdiction. Details of the Liberty man's initial crash, why he stepped into the live travel lane, and whether speed or other factors played a role in the Freightliner collision remain unclear.
