SCOTT COUNTY — A Seymour man was struck and killed late Sunday night while walking along Interstate 65 south of Austin, Indiana, in a crash that investigators say involved two vehicles and remains under active investigation by the Indiana State Police.
Just after 11:25 p.m. Sunday, drivers traveling southbound on I-65 near mile marker 35, north of Austin, reported hitting a pedestrian who was walking on the roadway. The first call came from the driver of a southbound bobtail Volvo semi-tractor, who told dispatchers he believed he had struck someone walking along the fog line near the highway shoulder.
Deputies from the Scott County Sheriff’s Department and Jackson County Sheriff’s Department responded and searched the area, but were initially unable to locate a victim.
Minutes later, police said, a second crash occurred about a half-mile north of the first reported location when a southbound Ford Escape struck the same pedestrian as he walked northbound in the driving lane. That driver stopped and called 911 immediately.
First responders transported the pedestrian, later identified as 35-year-old Bryce Allen Sheaffer of Seymour, to Scott Memorial Hospital in Scottsburg, where he was pronounced dead.
Indiana State Police crash reconstructionists were called to the scene, and preliminary findings indicate the semi-tractor initially grazed Sheaffer before he continued walking against traffic and into the driving lane, where the second collision occurred several minutes later.
Neither alcohol nor drugs is suspected as a factor for either driver, police said. The southbound lanes of I-65 were closed for several hours overnight during the investigation and reopened around 4 a.m. Monday.
Authorities have not released any information on why Sheaffer was on the interstate. The crash remains under investigation by the Indiana State Police Sellersburg Post, and the family of the deceased has been notified.
