A 53-year-old man from Bear died Sunday night after being hit by a car while trying to cross Interstate 95 north near Newark, Delaware State Police said.
According to police, the man, who has not yet been identified, was driving a Nissan Titan on I-95 by South Chapel Street when he drifted off the highway and into the left shoulder.
There, he hit a guardrail, which caused his car to rotate and stop facing south in the north lane.Police said the man got out of his car and was trying to cross all lanes of I-95 when a 44-year-old man from New Jersey, who was driving a Hyundai Elantra, ran into him.
The impact threw the Bear man onto the shoulder, police said. He was taken to Christiana Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The New Jersey man was uninjured.
Sunday night’s crash is one of several in the last two months in which drivers involved in a wreck, or those who have stopped to help, have been killed on Delaware highways.In late November, Delaware National Guard Cpl. Erin Sasse and Lorenzo Deer, of Maryland, died on I-95 after stopping to help a man who’d crashed his car near Christiana.
Police said Deer saw the crash victim on the side of the road and got out to help. As he was standing on the shoulder, a 2020 Kia Stinger veered into the shoulder and hit him.
Deer was thrown into another lane of traffic, where a second car hit him. He died on scene.Sasse also died after the car that ran over Deer hit her car. The 34-year-old Delaware National Guard corporal had stopped to help the crash victim.
About a month later, on Christmas Eve, Bear resident David West was killed on Route 1 north after being hit by another car.Police said West had been driving on the highway, just south of the Interstate 95 overpass, when he lost control of his Honda Civic and hit a concrete barrier on the right shoulder.
West got out of the car following the crash and was standing in the left lane when a 54-year-old woman from Townsend, who was also driving north, hit his Civic.After hitting the Civic, the woman’s car also hit West. He died on scene.
Police said there was “steady rainfall and limited lighting in the area” at the time of the wreck.
While Delaware State Police have offered no post-crash safety tips, an article from Nemours says if it’s not safe to exit a car following a crash, and that drivers and passengers should keep their seat belts on, turn on their hazard lights and call 911.
They should then wait for emergency personnel to arrive.