{"id":55980,"date":"2026-02-17T08:11:32","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T13:11:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kentuckystatepolice.ky.gov\/?p=55980"},"modified":"2026-02-17T08:11:32","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T13:11:32","slug":"p4-2-16-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kentuckystatepolice.ky.gov\/news\/p4-2-16-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Kentucky State Police Investigate Fatal Collision in Hardin County"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>LEBANON JUNCTION, Ky.<\/strong> <strong>(February 16, 2026)<\/strong> \u2013The Kentucky State Police (KSP) Post 4 is investigating a two-vehicle fatal collision that occurred earlier today on Interstate 65 in Hardin County.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On February 16, 2026, at approximately 9:46 a.m. EST, KSP troopers responded to a collision at the 103-mile marker on Interstate 65 northbound near Lebanon Junction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The preliminary investigation indicates traffic on interstate 65 northbound had slowed due to a previous collision near the 106-mile marker. A blue Hyundai Elantra, operated by Drew Cookenmaster, 29, of Hodgenville, struck the rear of a northbound tractor-trailer operated by Shakisha Brewington, 52, of Schertz, Texas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cookenmaster was pronounced deceased at the scene by the Hardin County Coroner. The operator of the tractor-trailer was not injured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The northbound lanes of Interstate 65 at the Joe Prather exit were closed for approximately 3 hours to allow troopers to reconstruct the collision. The investigation remains ongoing by Trooper Scott Wheatley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>KSP was assisted at the scene by the Hardin County EMS, Hardin County Coroner&#8217;s Office, Hardin County Sheriff&#8217;s Office, Lebanon Junction Fire Department, and Central Hardin Fire Department.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p># # #<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-thumbnail is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/wp.kentuckystatepolice.ky.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/fghjk-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-55981\" style=\"width:560px;height:auto\"\/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LEBANON JUNCTION, Ky. (February 16, 2026) \u2013The Kentucky State Police (KSP) Post 4 is investigating a two-vehicle fatal collision that occurred earlier today on Interstate 65 in Hardin County. On February 16, 2026, at approximately 9:46 a.m. EST, KSP troopers responded to a collision at the 103-mile marker on Interstate 65 northbound near Lebanon Junction. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":39589,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,57],"tags":[159,93],"class_list":["post-55980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ksp-news","category-post-4","tag-fatal-collision","tag-post-4"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wp.kentuckystatepolice.ky.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/2024-Article-Graphics-Fatal-Collision-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.kentuckystatepolice.ky.gov\/\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.kentuckystatepolice.ky.gov\/\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.kentuckystatepolice.ky.gov\/\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.kentuckystatepolice.ky.gov\/\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.kentuckystatepolice.ky.gov\/\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55980"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.kentuckystatepolice.ky.gov\/\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55980\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55982,"href":"https:\/\/wp.kentuckystatepolice.ky.gov\/\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55980\/revisions\/55982"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.kentuckystatepolice.ky.gov\/\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.kentuckystatepolice.ky.gov\/\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.kentuckystatepolice.ky.gov\/\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.kentuckystatepolice.ky.gov\/\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}