SHEPHERDSVILLE, KENTUCKY — Kentucky State Police are searching for a Louisville tow truck driver who fled the scene of a fatal crash on northbound Interstate 65 in Bullitt County early Saturday after attempting a U-turn across all three lanes of the interstate with a bobtail tractor in tow, striking a Ford Focus and killing the driver.
KSP Post 4 troopers responded just before midnight Friday to the collision near mile marker 112. Luis Gonzalez Perez, 34, of Louisville, was operating a wrecker that had been hooked to a bobtail tractor parked on the shoulder. The tractor was facing northbound while the wrecker was positioned southbound to transport it. Perez attempted to swing the wrecker and its tow across all three northbound lanes to go northbound, and as the turn was underway a 2007 Ford Focus driven by Shawn Franklin, 43, of North Carolina, struck the wrecker.
Franklin was taken to University of Louisville Hospital with life-threatening injuries and was later pronounced dead by the Jefferson County Coroner’s Office. Perez was not injured and left the scene.
Troopers and other law enforcement agencies are actively trying to locate Perez. Charges are pending and will be referred through the Bullitt County Attorney’s Office. Trooper Jesse Harp is leading the investigation.
Anyone with information on Perez’s whereabouts is asked to contact Kentucky State Police.
All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
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