A tractor-trailer slammed into a Missouri Department of Transportation truck in the westbound lanes of Interstate 44 near Doolittle on Tuesday afternoon, injuring two MoDOT employees and shutting down the highway near mile marker 179. Multiple ambulances responded to the scene, and both workers were taken to the hospital, though the extent of their injuries was not yet known.
The crash happened around 3:50 p.m., according to the MoDOT traveler map, as reported by ABC17NEWS. The Doolittle Rural Fire Protection District and the Missouri State Highway Patrol both confirmed a MoDOT truck was involved. Interstate 44 was expected to remain closed for about an hour and a half, per the traveler map, and MoDOT narrowed the highway to one lane while crews worked the scene.
Traffic Rerouted Around the Scene
Traffic was redirected to ramps around the crash, according to MoDOT's social media posts. MoDOT spokeswoman Marcia Johnson reported that two MoDOT employees were injured in the crash and later confirmed the interstate had been narrowed to a single lane while emergency crews responded. The employees were brought to a hospital, though officials had not released details on their condition as of the initial report.
The stretch of I-44 near Doolittle falls under the jurisdiction of Missouri State Highway Patrol Troop I, headquartered in Rolla and responsible for six south-central Missouri counties, including Phelps County, according to Hoodline. That same corridor has seen other serious commercial vehicle incidents in recent months, including a fiery February crash in which a semi-truck struck bridge pillars near Doolittle's Exit 172, requiring an 11-minute extrication of the driver by local fire crews, as detailed by KSDK.
A Pattern of Rear-End Strikes on Protection Trucks
Tuesday's crash adds to a troubling statewide pattern of vehicles striking the trucks MoDOT deploys to shield highway workers. In January, a westbound tractor-trailer struck a MoDOT truck equipped with a Scorpion attenuator in the rear on Interstate 44, an incident that led to the semi driver's arrest on careless driving and licensing charges, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol's account carried by a local Facebook report. MoDOT's attenuator-equipped protection trucks, which number more than 600 statewide and cost between $50,000 and $80,000 apiece, are specifically engineered to absorb the kinetic energy of rear-end impacts and shield crews from more severe harm.
The danger these trucks are built to counter is widespread. Missouri recorded 50 separate crashes in 2025 in which moving vehicles struck the backs of MoDOT protection or attenuator trucks, prompting state officials to release warning footage earlier this year, according to a report cited by FOX 2. In the second quarter of 2026 alone, MoDOT reported seven protective vehicle crashes in work zones statewide, injuring two MoDOT employees and three third-party individuals.
Move Over Law Carries Steep Penalties
Missouri's Move Over law, codified at RSMo § 304.022, requires drivers on multi-lane highways to change lanes away from stationary MoDOT vehicles displaying flashing amber or amber-and-white lights, or to slow down and proceed with caution if changing lanes is not safe. The statute was expanded to explicitly cover highway maintenance and utility crews alongside emergency responders. Violating the law is a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to $2,000 in fines and up to a year in jail, with felony exposure if a violation causes injury or death.
Work zones across the state remain especially dangerous. MoDOT recorded 24 fatalities across more than 400 work zone crashes in Missouri in 2025, with distracted driving identified as a contributing factor in at least 11 of those deaths, according to MoDOT. Missouri's hands-free driving law, in effect since August 2023, separately bars drivers from holding or supporting a wireless device while behind the wheel, part of the state's broader push to curb distraction-related crashes on corridors like I-44.
