MANKATO — Authorities in Blue Earth County say a driver struck and killed a man who was walking in the road near Mankato.

The victim was identified as 21-year-old Travis L. Albright of Cleveland, Minn.

He was struck Sunday about 6 a.m. near the Mankato Regional Airport. The sheriff’s department hasn’t said why he was in the road.

The driver was 30-year-old Jacob J. Gilbert of Medford. He pulled over after the collision and told authorities he thought he’d hit a deer. Another driver stopped and told him it was a person who’d been struck.

Albright was taken to a Rochester hospital, where he died.