The Iowa State Patrol has arrested a semi driver identified as 46-year-old Chicago resident Rubin Ward for reportedly striking a construction worker identified as 27-year-old Tama resident Christopher Wheeler in Warren County on Thursday afternoon, September 26 at around 4 p.m., instantly killing the victim.
According to the police, Ward apparently tried to swerve to avoid hitting stopped vehicles while he was driving a northbound semi on U.S. Highway 65 near Liberty Center when part of his vehicle hit Wheeler, a construction flagger at a construction zone.
The semi then supposedly drove into a ditch, got out of it, and then fled the scene of the accident. Highway patrol troopers hailed the semi-trailer on Highway 65.
Iowa State Patrol Sergeant Scott Bright told The Des Moines Register that Ward said he wasn’t able to see Wheeler. However, Bright said the 340 feet of skid marks tell a different story.