A tow-truck driver tending to a disabled vehicle at night on I-94 in Minneapolis leapt over a concrete barrier as a car bore down on him, but was run over on the other side of the median and severely injured, authorities said Tuesday.

Trevor Allison, 38, of St. Paul, was in serious condition at Hennepin County Medical Center, according to a hospital spokeswoman.

"Drivers should pay attention as this occurred in a straightaway and the lights were visible," said State Patrol Lt. Tiffani Nielson.

Nielson added that motorists must "slow [down] and move a lane away from police, fire, EMS, MnDOT, or tow trucks" tending to calls on a shoulder or even partly in lanes of traffic.

"The driver who struck the tow truck could potentially be cited," Nielson said.

According to the patrol lieutenant:

Allison was loading a vehicle onto the flatbed of his tow truck about 9:30 p.m. Monday on a snow-slickened eastbound Interstate 94 near the Riverside Avenue exit. He was working on a "very narrow shoulder," leaving his truck well into the lane of traffic.

Allison was outside the truck, its emergency lights flashing, when he saw a car "driving at him in the left lane, not slowing."

The truck driver leapt over the low freeway wall to his left and onto westbound I-94. The oncoming car, driven by 60-year-old Moua Vang, of St. Paul, struck the tow truck and the driver was hospitalized with noncritical injuries.

A minivan in the left westbound lane swerved and grazed Allison, sending him into the path of a car in the center lane. The car then hit Allison, inflicting the most serious of his injuries.

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482