Springfield Police are investigating a fatal incident in which a pedestrian was struck by a vehicle on U.S. 65 near Battlefield Road.
The pedestrian, Harrison Charlesworth, 33, was walking southbound on U.S. 65 at about 9 a.m. Wednesday when he stepped in front of an oncoming dump truck approaching in the right, outside lane, according to a Thursday Springfield police news release. The driver of the dump truck swerved in an attempt to avoid hitting Charlesworth, police said, but struck both the pedestrian and a pickup truck in the middle lane of the highway. Charlesworth was alive when taken by ambulance to a hospital, where he later died.
This is the second fatal incident involving a vehicle and pedestrian in two days. Early Tuesday, a man was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver at the Kansas Expressway and Division Street intersection. Police on Wednesday released the name of the victim, Jerry Westmoreland, 59, as well as the arrest of a suspect, John E. Hofstetter, 43.
On Tuesday at about 5:30 a.m., Springfield police responded to a report of a vehicle-pedestrian collision at the intersection. The investigation indicated that Westmoreland was crossing Kansas Expressway and had stopped on the raised median in the middle of the intersection. As he waited to cross, a silver SUV heading northbound drove up onto the median and struck Westmoreland. He was taken to a local hospital, where he later died, according to police. Springfield police say that the driver of the SUV, Hofstetter, fled the scene after the collision and headed west on Division. Investigators determined that Hofstetter, a Bolivar resident, was a suspect in the fatal collision. He was arrested with cooperation from the Bolivar Police Department.
Investigators continue to work on the case, and criminal charges have not been determined yet by the Greene County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. Anyone with additional information about the incident is asked to contact the Springfield Police Department at 417-864-1810.