UPDATE: Semi driver charged with involuntary manslaughter after deadly Phelps County crash

UPDATE: Tyler Davis has been charged with involuntary manslaughter and four counts of assault in the second degree.

According to the probable cause statement, Davis said he was reaching down for his soda, which had fallen out of the cup holder, when he looked up and saw the traffic stopped.

Davis said he applied his brakes, but it was not for very long before the crash happened.

Troopers said the crash happened in a construction zone where MODOT had warned drivers of the slower traffic miles before the congestion began.

Officers said Davis admitted to seeing the warnings before arriving in the construction zone.

ORIGINAL STORY: The Missouri State Highway Patrol arrested a driver after a crash involving a semi truck left one person dead and several others injured in Phelps County Monday.

Troopers arrested Tyler Davis, 33, on suspicion of involuntary manslaughter and four counts of second degree assault.

The four-vehicle crash happened just after 5 p.m. in the eastbound lanes of Interstate 44 near the 192 mile marker.

Davis, who was driving the semi, crashed into the back of a car, which then crashed into the back of an SUV and hit a guardrail, according to a highway patrol crash report. The SUV overturned and hit a pickup truck.

The driver of the car, Jan Fenton, 55, was pronounced dead on scene by the Phelps county Coroner.

A passenger in Fenton’s car, Lydia Fenton, 20, was flown to University Hospital in Columbia with serious injuries.

Davis as well as three people in the SUV, Julia Fay, Mary Fay and Linda Hagen, were all transported to a local hospital by ambulance with minor to serious injuries.