ST. LOUIS — An Oklahoma family is mourning the loss of a longtime truck driver who died on 270 early Wednesday morning.
Spencer Perry, 66, spent 45 years making a living behind the wheel of a truck.
"When I was younger, I got to (ride) with him before I started school,” Jason Perry, his son, said. “By the time I started school I had already been to Mexico Canada, Alaska, a lot of different places."
Perry's father is part of the reason he now drives trucks too.
It's a passion now that Jason will have to go at it alone after his father passed away on Interstate 270 at around 12:30 Wednesday morning.
While Perry was checking on two women involved in a crash, a 17-year-old driving a third vehicle hit and killed him.
It all started around 12:30 a.m. in the southbound lanes near Big Bend Road in Kirkwood. The Missouri State Highway Patrol described the incident as a multi-crash scene, meaning one crash triggered another crash that led to another one.
The first crash involved a tractor-trailer and a 2008 Pontiac G6. The driver of the car hit the center concrete wall, swerved back into the lanes and was hit by the tractor-trailer. The two people inside the car were killed. They were identified as Jessica Kaplan, a 33-year-old woman from St. Louis, and Nancy Hodge, a 31-year-old woman from Black Jack, Missouri.
In the moments after the crash, perry got out to check on the people in the car. While he was outside his vehicle, another car hit and killed him.
“If he could help somebody, he would help them, it was his second nature,” Better Perry, his wife said.
His wife said the love of her life since 1974 was born with a big heart. No one knew that better than his grandchildren.
“He would deliver milk to Russell Stovers," Whitney Perry, his daughter-in-law, said. “He would always keep cash on him and bring treats back for the grandkids.”
The family said his principles in life will always stick with them: work hard, love your family, love the lord.