A 30-year-old New Jersey man was struck and killed by a tractor-trailer in Virginia on Monday after pulling over when his vehicle became disabled, authorities said.
Richard J. Zadroga, of Bayonne, was hit along Route 130 near Buffalo Springs Turnpike in Amherst County, according to the Virginia State Police.“As a tractor-trailer passed by, the driver of the disabled vehicle suddenly ran into the travel lane,” a Virginia State Police spokeswoman wrote in an email. “The tractor-trailer was unable to avoid striking the pedestrian.”The emergency lights on Zadroga’s vehicle were flashing when he was hit just after 7:30 p.m.
Zadroga was pronounced dead at the scene.
“Richie was a shining light, the apple of his grandmother’s eye and the smartest person I know,” his aunt Kristen Zadroga Hart wrote in a Facebook post. “He will be missed by all who knew him. May his soul rest in eternal peace.”