An Independence Day crash proved fatal for 24-year-old Dominic Allen, of Bardstown, who was pronounced dead at the scene along Western Kentucky Parkway near Clarkson on Wednesday.

According to a report from Kentucky State Police, Allen was driving in the slow lane of traffic, and slowing down, while 66-year-old Jerry Whitley, of Newbern, TN, began to pass him in a tractor trailer.

Allen suddenly moved into the passing lane in an attempt to make a U-turn, the report said, so that he could return eastward to assist a friend who had run out of gas along the parkway.

As Allen’s 2005 Ford Explorer moved into the left lane of traffic, Whitley struck it in the driver’s side door.

“Both vehicles came to a final rest in the westbound lanes,” the report states, adding that Whitley’s 2007 Peterbilt tractor trailer stretched across both lanes of travel, while Allen’s Explorer was in the right lane facing southwest.

Dominic Allen was pronounced dead at the scene by Grayson County Coroner, Joe Brad Hudson.

The accident was handled by The Grayson County Sheriff’s Department and Kentucky State Police Post 4 and CVE Division. Grayson County EMS also responded.

Westbound lanes of traffic along the parkway were shut down for approximately four and a half hours while the crash was being investigated and the semi removed from the roadway.

Investigation into the accident is ongoing, though the KSP report states that alcohol does not appear to be a factor.

It appeared to responding officers that Allen was not wearing a seat belt at the time of the collision.