This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.

DES MOINES, Iowa — Des Moines Police have released the name of the driver who lost his life in a semi crash on Merle Hay Road Friday morning.

At around 8:23 a.m. emergency crews responded to a report of a serious injury crash in the 3800 block of Merle Hay Road. When first responders arrived to the scene they discovered a semi and Nissan Altima had collided.

Police said the driver of the Nissan Altima, who has been identified as 50-year-old Chad Kevin Lentz, passed away from his injuries at the scene of the crash.

The driver of the semi, a 55-year-old man, was found by medics to be suffering from a medical event, police said. He was transported to a nearby hospital where he remains in critical condition.

Preliminary evidence indicates that the semi was traveling northbound on Merle Hay road when the driver left the roadway to the right just north of the Douglas Ave. intersection. The semi then returned back to the road, crossed over the median and entered the southbound lanes. The semi crashed into Lentz, who was traveling southbound, and then left the roadway again and crashed into a utility pole.

Police said an investigation into the crash is on-going. This is the fifth traffic-related fatality of 2023.