WATERTOWN, N.Y. -- A Fort Drum soldier from Maine was killed by a passing motorist when he and a friend took a shortcut across a northern New York highway to get to a restaurant.

Deputies say 21-year-old Justin Kennie of Cornish was killed just after 7 p.m. Sunday on Interstate 81 when he was hit by a car driven by another Fort Drum soldier. The incident caused two other wrecks that left seven others injured.

Kennie and a fellow soldier were trying to cross the southbound lane of I-81 to get to a Watertown restaurant without using a bridge that crosses the highway.