Police: Bowling Green man involved in pedestrian fatality

RUSSELL SPRINGS, Ky. – A Bowling Green man was driving a vehicle towing a trailer Wednesday when the trailer struck a pedestrian on the Louie B. Nunn Parkway in Russell County.

Kentucky State Police Post 15 troopers responded to a two-vehicle collision in Russell County at 3:40 p.m. Wednesday at the 61-mile marker on the Louie B. Nunn Parkway in Russell County.

A preliminary investigation shows Keith Coffman, 45 of Bowling Green, was driving west in a 2019 Ford pickup truck towing trailers, according to a release from Kentucky State Police.

For an unknown reason, Coffman’s vehicle left the right shoulder of the roadway, and the trailer he was towing struck pedestrian Joe Birdwell, 71, of Columbia and a 1997 Dodge pickup truck, which was parked in the westbound emergency lane, according to the release.

Birdwell was flown to University of Kentucky Hospital where he later died. A passenger of Birdwell’s vehicle, Kenneth Davis, 76 of Columbia, was also flown to the University of Kentucky Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

A portion of the westbound lanes of the Louie B. Nunn Parkway were closed for several hours so that police could examine the wreck site. The incident remains under investigation.