The coroner says that the death of a 24-year-old Vernon Hills man who was hit by a semi-truck on Interstate 94 near Lake Forest has been ruled a suicide.
The Illinois State Police and Lake Forest Fire Department responded around 12 p.m. Thursday to eastbound Interstate 94 near mile marker 19.75.
Illinois State Police Trooper Genelle Jones said District 15 troopers responded to a call of a person struck by a vehicle south of Route 60 on the tollway.
Troopers arrived on the scene and confirmed a pedestrian was struck in traffic by a passing semi-truck.
The pedestrian was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics.
The driver of the truck, a 38-year-old man from Crown Point, Indiana, was uninjured in the incident.
The right two lanes of Interstate 94 south of Route 60 were closed for an investigation, Jones said.
A preliminary investigation shows a blue 2017 Freightliner truck tractor semi-trailer combination was traveling eastbound on Interstate 94 in the right lane when it struck the pedestrian in the lane of traffic, state police said.
Two right lanes of Interstate 94 eastbound were closed for the investigation. All lanes were reopened just before 3 p.m. Thursday.
Lake County Coroner Jennifer Banek said the pedestrian was identified as Joseph Lee, 24, of Vernon Hills.
Banek said Lee’s cause of death was blunt force trauma and the manner of death was suicide.