LANCASTER TWP — State police say a man is dead after being hit by a tractor-trailer along Interstate 79 Wednesday night.

Scott Garing, the chief of Harmony Fire District, said the department responded to the interstate's Little Creek Road exit at about 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, where they found a man lying on the interstate with “severe traumatic injuries.”

The man, whom Garing said was about 40 years old, was rushed in critical condition to UPMC-Passavant Cranberry hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

The interstate's southbound lanes were shut down for several hours Wednesday night as emergency responders blocked off the area to allow for a state police investigation. The road reopened shortly after midnight.

An autopsy was planned for Thursday, though the authorities had yet to notify the man's next of kin as of Thursday afternoon, Coroner William F. Young III said.