NEWPORT – Police on Friday released the name of the victim of a tragic accident that occurred Thursday when a husband accidentally drove over his wife at a local truck stop.

Barbara Badger, 63, of Hartland was killed when her husband, Kermit Badger, 56, also of Hartland, pulled his truck cab forward in Irving Big Stop’s parking lot, knocking down and rolling over his wife.

“This is just such a tragedy,” Newport police Chief Leonard R. Macdaid said Friday.

Kermit Badger and a trucker from Pittsfield had just returned from a work trip to Chicago, Macdaid said. Badger picked up his wife at Irving’s, and the other trucker picked up his wife in Pittsfield.

The couples proceeded in separate trucks to Dysart’s Truck Stop in Hermon and delivered the trailers they were hauling. Afterward, the couples had dinner together at the Hermon truck stop.

The four returned to the Newport truck stop about 8:30 p.m. so Barbara Badger could get her vehicle.

When she got out of her husband’s truck, she passed in front of it. Macdaid said Kermit Badger believed his wife had walked behind the tractor and pulled ahead to let another trucker into the lot.

That trucker, Macdaid said, witnessed the accident and tried to warn Badger by blowing his horn.

“Lack of visibility was a factor,” Macdaid said, “including that it was raining heavily at the time and the height of the tractor.”

Badger was driving a 2000 Freightliner tractor for the company he and his wife operated, K&B Trucking of Hartland.

“These were well-known people in this area,” said Macdaid.