The body of Thomas Haskins was a day away from being cremated – and his closest kin didn’t even know he was dead.FORT WAYNE – A 23-year-old man was killed Thursday morning after rear-ending a tractor-trailer rig that was stopped at Coliseum Boulevard and Crescent Avenue, police said.
Coliseum Boulevard’s eastbound lanes remained closed for several hours as crews worked to clear debris and investigate the crash.
Lucas J. Goodmann of Fort Wayne was traveling east on Coliseum and was trying to change lanes as a line of vehicles approached the Crescent Avenue intersection, Fort Wayne police said.
Witnesses told police that Goodmann’s car, a red Chevrolet Impala, clipped the side mirror of a white Pontiac and then rear-ended a tractor-trailer rig that was stopped in traffic.
The force of the impact from Goodmann’s car pushed the rig forward about 2 feet. The car then came to rest across two lanes on Coliseum, police said.
Goodmann died at the scene about 7:55 a.m.
He was not wearing a seat belt, the Allen County coroner said.
No other injuries were reported.
According to his Facebook page, Goodmann was a 2009 graduate of South Side High School.
The crash remains under investigation by Fort Wayne police, the Allen County Prosecutor’s Office and the Allen County coroner.
Goodmann’s death marks the third traffic death in Fort Wayne and Allen County this year.
