NC man returning home after tragedy is victim in fatal I-10 crash near MS Buc-ee’s site
It was a young North Carolina man who died on I-10 Monday near Pass Christian after crashing into a tractor trailer, Harrison County Coroner Brian Switzer told the Sun Herald Tuesday morning.
Jalen Baker, 24, was driving home to Fayetteville, North Carolina when the crash occurred in the eastbound lanes of I-10, near mile marker 23.
Switzer said Baker was driving his pickup truck east on I-10, about a mile west of the construction area for the exit 24 interchange rebuild, where Buc-ee’s and other businesses will be built.
“A vehicle in front of the 18-wheeler stopped suddenly,” Switzer said. The truck driver managed to almost avoid a collision but struck the rear of the vehicle, causing very minor damage.
Baker was following and couldn’t stop in time. He hit the rear of the semi and died at the scene from blunt force trauma, Switzer said. Speed was a factor in the crash, the coroner said.
There is more to the tragedy.
The coroner couldn’t release Baker’s name until his family was notified. His wife is active duty military stationed in Korea, Switzer said, and the Red Cross assisted in contacting her.
The woman was just in Louisiana, he said, when her father died in July.
“She just left the 26th to go back,” he said.
Her husband was in Louisiana finalizing her father’s affairs and was driving home with some of his father-in-law’s belongings for his wife, who now must deal with her husband’s death.
This story was originally published August 15, 2023 at 9:20 AM.
