A 22-year-old man from Belleview was killed late Monday night when his pickup truck struck a tree that had fallen across a rural Washington County road, leaving no way around the obstruction in the dark. The driver, who was not wearing a seatbelt, was pronounced dead at the scene.
According to FOX 2, the crash happened around 10:20 p.m. on Buford Road and involved a Chevrolet Silverado that was heading westbound when it struck a downed tree blocking the entire roadway. The station reported the location as Buford Road near Highway 21, while First Alert 4 placed the crash along Buford Road near Missouri Route 32, south of Caledonia. The Missouri State Highway Patrol has not been directly quoted clarifying the discrepancy in either report.
Fox 2's report, citing the Missouri State Highway Patrol, said the driver was pronounced dead at the scene. First Alert 4's account similarly noted that paramedics pronounced the man dead on scene. Both outlets agree the crash unfolded quickly once the truck met the blocked road in the dark, leaving the driver no chance to avoid the collision.
Seatbelt Use a Focus of Patrol's Report
Per the same account from the highway patrol, the driver was not wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash. That detail is one of the few specifics investigators have released so far, and it echoes a factor highway safety officials routinely flag in fatal single-vehicle wrecks on Missouri's rural roads.
Beyond the seatbelt finding, the evidence gathered so far does not explain why the tree was down, how long it may have been blocking the road, or whether anyone had reported the hazard before the crash. Those questions remain unanswered in the reporting released overnight.
Washington County's Rural Roads Have Seen Tragedy Before
Monday night's crash is not the first fatal wreck on a Washington County roadway in recent memory. In May 2025, a six-year-old girl from Potosi was killed and three others were injured in a single-vehicle crash on Highway 21 near Woodhaven Road, according to KTTN. In that earlier wreck, a northbound pickup drifted off the roadway, struck a mailbox, slid across the road and hit a tree; the young girl was pronounced dead that morning at Washington County Memorial Hospital.
As first reported by KRCG, Monday's crash adds another somber entry to the list of fatal wrecks on the county's rural routes this year. No further details about the driver's identity or funeral arrangements have been released.
