Man dies after being struck by semi on I-55, dragged under second vehicle

A man in his 70s was killed on Interstate 55 just south of exit 93 late Thursday when he was struck by a semitrailer.

Witnesses said the victim's pickup truck had broken down in the northbound lanes, said Sgt. Dennis Horn of the Cape Girardeau Police Department.

Horn said the man's truck had stalled and that the man gotten out of the truck for unknown reasons. The man was struck by a semitrailer that tried to swerve to avoid him and was struck a second time by a late model Buick and dragged an unknown distance underneath the car, Horn said.

The semitrailer came to rest in the median and was prevented from entering the southbound lanes by the guard cables on the west side of the median.

The victim came to rest in the median near the northbound lanes.

The semitrailer driver, Paul Lambert of Festus, Mo., said that when the last car of a line of cars in front of him moved over to the left-hand lane, he saw the man standing behind his truck in the right-hand lane.

He said he tried use the right-hand shoulder to pass the truck but was unable to avoid hitting it.

"I had traffic behind me, I had traffic on my left. I was just trying to get over." he said.

Lambert, an independent owner-operator, was traveling with his wife and three children at the time.

No one in the semitrailer was injured.