A truck driver is dead following a rear-end crash on I-43 Thursday morning that shut down the northbound highway for most of the day near the Waukesha/Big Bend exit. Nearby residents said the loud sound of the crash could be heard from inside their homes.
"It sounded like a big, like thunder," Karina Cervantes said.
"All of a sudden heard this loud noise and I remember thinking, ' What in the world was that?'" Barbara SanFelippo said.
The Waukesha County Sheriff's Office said two trucks crashed when one rear-ended the other around 6 a.m. The driver who struck the back of the other truck died at the scene. The other driver was rushed to the hospital with injuries not considered life-threatening. Authorities closed I-43 northbound from the Mukwonago exit to the Waukesha/Big Bend exit — not only to investigate the crash, but also to clean up cargo that spilled from both semis onto the road.
Watch: Deadly crash could be heard inside Big Bend neighbors' homes, shut down I-43 for hours
When neighbors looked outside, they saw the crash on the highway.
"It looked like there was smoke coming between the two vehicles, but I wasn't sure," SanFelippo said.
The highway closure prompted SanFelippo to contact TMJ4.
"I thought, 'I'm going to call TMJ4 real quick, let them know maybe people cannot get on the highway because this is going to be awhile,'" SanFelippo said.
Kayla Fuller, who also lives nearby, said traffic was being redirected around the scene.
"We saw they were redirecting and moving people around. It looked like a mess out there," Fuller said.
Neighbors said ongoing construction on I-43 has led to several minor crashes in the area recently.
"With things going on around there, people just have to be paying attention. There is a lot of; everything is kind of changing day to day," Fuller said.
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