Turnpike crash kills truck driver

A truck driver died shortly after running his tractor-trailer off the Pennsylvania Turnpike eastbound in Penn Township on Friday at about 12:45 a.m., according to state police.

Driver Ralph Baker, 61, of Parma, Ohio, died at Forbes Hospital in Monroeville 1:44 a.m. Friday, according to the Allegheny County Medical Examiner.

For unknown reasons, Baker's truck veered abruptly from the right side of the road and hit a guard rail, then continued and stopped in a wooded area alongside the road.

A short section of the right-hand lane between mile markers 61.2 to 61.4 eastbound was closed early Friday.

Traffic was backed up for more than three miles near the accident scene eastbound between the Monroeville and Irwin exits shortly after 8 a.m.

The driver of a tractor trailer died in an accident on the PA Turnpike by milepost 61. One lane restriction eastbound pic.twitter.com/6RL0yfxFiH

" Lori Houy (@WPXI_Lori) July 7, 2017