The investigation continues into a crash that left a 73-year-old North Platte man dead.

According to Investigator John Deal, officers responded to the accident on Newberry Access, near the Flying J truck stop, at around 3:10 p.m. on Thursday.

Deal says officers observed a Ford pickup that was in the median and on its top.

It was determined that the pickup was traveling northbound and was south of the Walker Road intersection.  Deal says a semi was stopped at the stop sign on Walker Road facing east and turned north onto Newberry Access.  The semi had completed its turn when it was struck in the rear by the pickup, driven by 40-year-old Emmett Wood, of North Platte.

Deal says the pickup rolled several times, and witnesses reported that it was traveling at a high rate of speed before it struck the semi’s trailer.

A passenger in the pickup, 73-year-odl Michael B. Torres, Sr, also of North Platte, was transported to Great Plains Health where he died a short time later.

Wood was transported to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.  The semi driver, 30-year-old Jeffry Owens of Arlington, Tx, was not transported by EMS, and Deal said he does not know if he was injured.

Neither Wood nor Torres were wearing their seatbelts at the time of the crash.

Deal says both drivers submitted to a legal blood draw, per state law, but the results of those tests will not be available for several days.

The Nebraska State Patrol and the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office assisted with the investigation.

The investigation is ongoing.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts says the state is positioning itself to export beef to China.

Ricketts on Friday applauded news that China would allow American beef into the country for the first time since 2003. Ricketts has visited China in each of the past two years to urge the Chinese government to reopen its market.

Nebraska Department of Agriculture International Trade Director Stan Garbacz will visit China next week to lobby for Nebraska beef.

Nebraska is the leading exporter of red meat in the U.S. Farmers exported more than $1.1 billion worth of beef last year.

China imports about $2.5 billion in beef from other countries.

NORTH PLATTE, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a pickup truck passenger has died after a collision with a semitrailer in North Platte.

The accident occurred around 3:15 p.m. Thursday. Police Sgt. Kendall Allison says the pickup clipped the back of the semi and rolled several times, coming to rest on its top.

Police identified the passenger as 73-year-old Mike Torres Sr., who lived in North Platte. The pickup driver’s injuries and name haven’t been released. The semi driver was not injured.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Aetna Health says it will be leaving the individual health plan market in Nebraska.

Aetna had sold policies in only four states this year after quitting 11 states last year, and last month it announced it was pulling out of Iowa and Virginia.

Aetna’s decision leaves only Medica Health in Nebraska’s Affordable Care Act market, and Medica officials said Wednesday that the company had not yet decided whether to remain in the Nebraska market.

Nebraska Insurance Department director Bruce Ramge has said that if no companies participate in the Nebraska exchange next year, it could mean that people who qualify for tax credits don’t get them, although they would still have to find insurance to fulfill the individual mandate should it still be in effect.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A man convicted of sexual assault on children in two Nebraska Panhandle counties has died while serving a prison sentence of 40 to 60 years.

The Nebraska Department of Correctional Services says 77-year-old Larry Holladay died late last month at the Nebraska State Penitentiary in Lincoln. The cause of his death hasn’t yet been determined, but he’d been treated for a long-term medical problem.

State law requires a grand jury investigation any time a person dies in custody or while being arrested.

The department says Holladay was convicted of sexual assault and sexual assault on a child in Box Butte and Sheridan counties. He’d been imprisoned since January 2006.

CHADRON, Neb. (AP) — A county treasurer in northwest Nebraska has pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor forgery and six counts of official misconduct.

Dawes County Treasurer Barb Sebesta’s pleas were made Tuesday. Chadron radio station KCSR reports (https://bit.ly/2pBzPAq) that Sebesta’s attorney told a judge that plea negotiations were underway.

A state audit alleges Sebesta altered a check written by a taxpayer, changing it from $85.20 to $851.20, but not altering a total balance on a deposit. Sebesta says she was trying to clarify the proper amount for the bank.

She’s also accused of twice failing to collect sales tax and of failing to maintain trust balances in a timely fashion. Auditors also say Sebesta deposited bond forfeitures into the county’s general fund rather than distributing them to the schools as required by law.