Auburn man killed on icy road after pickup truck loses control on Alabama 169

A 64-year-old man died Friday after the pickup truck he was driving struck a patch of ice on Alabama 169 and lost control in Salem, the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency and Lee County Coroner’s Office said.

John Paul Vitruk formerly of Auburn was pronounced dead at the scene of the 10:26 a.m. crash near the 16 mile marker and Lee Road 175, said Lee County Coroner Bill Harris. He died of multiple blunt force injuries.

Harris said Vitruk was driving a 2007 GMC pickup southbound and pulling a U-Haul trailer when the vehicle struck a patch of ice on the road as he approached Lee Road 175. The trailer jack-knifed, pulling the pickup off the roadway and causing it to overturn.

Vitruk, who was moving to south Alabama to be with family and retire, was pinned in the wreckage. He was the only weather related fatality in Lee County from the snow and ice . He also is the first traffic fatality of 2018 in the county, the coroner said.

The crash remains under investigation by state troopers and the Lee County Coroner’s Office.

Ben Wright: 706-571-8576, @bfwright87

This story was originally published January 20, 2018 at 10:39 AM with the headline "Auburn man killed on icy road after pickup truck loses control on Alabama 169."