Caldwell County, MO (August 7, 2026) – Two Kidder residents were killed on Thursday morning, August 6, when a semi truck collided with a pickup truck on US-36 at Highway J, about two miles south of Kidder. It happened around 9:05 a.m.
The occupants of the pickup truck, an 87-year-old man and an 82-year-old woman, both of Kidder, were transported to separate hospitals, where they died from their injuries, according to state troopers. The driver of the semi, a 27-year-old man from Coffey, suffered minor injuries and was taken to a hospital by private vehicle.
Both vehicles were considered a total loss and were towed from the scene. The cause of the wreck remains under investigation.
Our condolences go out to the families of both victims.
Why May Semi-Pickup Crashes Turn Fatal for Truck Occupants?
Accidents between a semi truck and a pickup truck prove far more dangerous for the occupants of the smaller vehicle, even though a pickup is larger than a typical passenger car. A fully loaded semi can weigh 20 to 30 times more than a pickup, meaning the smaller vehicle absorbs the vast majority of the force when the two meet.
Rural highway intersections, like where US-36 meets Highway J, can be especially challenging because they combine higher speed limits with cross traffic that doesn’t always have a traffic signal. A driver has to judge the speed of an approaching semi carefully, since large trucks can be harder to gauge in terms of distance and closing speed than smaller vehicles.
Elderly drivers and passengers can also face a higher risk of severe injury when something like this happens, since bones and other tissues become more fragile with age. This is one reason a lower-speed impact that a younger occupant might walk away from can prove fatal for an older person.
