Cement truck fatally hit person who exited vehicle, tried to run across KC highway

A pedestrian died after being struck and killed by a cement truck Wednesday morning on a Kansas City highway, according to officials.

Officials responded around 6:50 a.m. to the crash scene at southbound Interstate 435 near Bannister Road, said Officer Donna Drake, a spokeswoman with the Kansas City Police Department, in a news release.

Investigators said the pedestrian was originally driving a black Buick Encore southbound on I-435 when, for unknown reasons, they drove across all lanes of traffic from the west to east side of the highway before striking the center concrete median.

The Buick driver left the vehicle and tried to run across the highway, when they were hit by a blue Kenworth T880 cement truck traveling southbound on I-435, Drake said.

Emergency medical crews pronounced the Buick driver dead at the scene, but the cement truck driver was not injured.

All lanes of southbound I-435 were closed for about two hours.

This was the 80th road fatality in 2022, compared with 74 at this time last year, according to data tracked by police.