A driver from Tennessee died Wednesday after his vehicle struck traffic stopped in a construction zone on Interstate 40 in St. Francis County, authorities said.

It happened about 3:15 p.m. about a mile east of the Palestine exit.

Arkansas State Police said in a report that 24-year-old Jacob Pace of Mt. Juliet, Tenn., was driving a 2011 GMC east on the highway when he "did not slow for traffic ahead."

The GMC first hit a 2010 Ford Fusion, pushing it into the median, before continuing east and hitting the rear of an 18-wheeler stopped in a construction zone, police said.

Pace died from his injuries. The Fusion driver, 69-year-old Gary Rimer of Memphis, was taken to a Memphis hospital with unspecified injuries. The truck driver was not hurt.

The death was the 146th in a traffic crash in Arkansas so far this year, according to preliminary figures.