A car crash on Interstate 70 early Monday morning fatally injured a pedestrian but left the driver unharmed.

According to a Columbia Police Department news release, Robert W. Berst, 55, was traveling westbound on I-70 near the 127.8 mile marker in a 2013 International Prostar tractor-trailer when he saw Nicholas D. Braun, 23, walking in the outside westbound lanes of traffic near the 128 mile marker of the road.

Berst swerved to try and avoid Braun but struck Braun near the passenger headlight at 12:45 a.m. Emergency services transported Braun to the University Hospital with life-threatening injuries. Berst was uninjured.

“(Braun) was taken in for surgery, but we do not know how that went,” Sergeant Curtis Perkins said.

It is unknown at this time why Braun was walking in the lanes of traffic and not on the shoulder.

According to the news release, speeding, driving under the influence and inattentiveness to the road are not factors that caused the accident.

Berst voluntarily submitted to a chemical blood test. Perkins said they do not yet know the results, as they take about a month to arrive.

There are no charges yet and the investigation is ongoing.

In 2011, the total number of crashes involving serious injuries in Columbia was 47, an increase from the 27 crashes causing serious injuries in 2010 according to the Missouri Department of Transportation.

Missouri had a total of 142,966 traffic crashes in 2011. Of these traffic crashes, 716 involved one or more persons being killed in the incident. In addition, 24.8 percent involved no one being killed but one or more persons being injured in the incident.

A total of 786 persons died in Missouri traffic crashes in 2011.