Fatal Crash Kills MoDOT Worker in Eastern Missouri

Just a week before National Work Zone Awareness Week, a 55-year old senior maintenance MoDOT worker was struck and killed yesterday in Franklin County, MO on Highway 100 near Buchheit Road outside New Haven, Missouri.

Work Zone Safety Week

Next week is April 11-15 is National Work Zone Awareness Week and raises awareness of highway worker safety in order to reduce or eliminate the exact kind of fatality that occurred yesterday.

According to reports, MoDOT was doing maintenance on eastbound lanes of Highway 100 outside New Haven. It is indicated that signs and lights were up and there was an  impact attenuator on the back of the truck which is meant to cushion thetruck during an impact.  The senior maintenance worker was standing in front of the truck when a Passat station wagon driven by an 80-year old Hermann, MO man struck the worker. The driver apparently swerved to avoid a dump truck also in the eastbound lane.

The MoDOT senior maintenance worker had worked for MoDOT for 30 years. The driver of the station wagon was taken to a hospital and listed with non-life threatening injuries.

“It’s not too early to say that what we need to learn from this and that is you need to pay attention, you need to be aware of your surroundings when you enter a work zone, “said Sgt Al Nothum, Missouri State Highway Patrol. “I don’t know why this individual did not see the truck and the MoDOT employees, but we know he did not see them soon enough. So, these are the things we’ve got to stop doing”.

Warmer Weather=More Highway Workers

It is not by chance that National Work Safety Week falls in early April. In Missouri, roadway repair and construction is the busiest in spring and summer months. Thus, motorists must keep a lookout for roadway workers so these kind of tragic deaths do not occur.  Reducing your speed in construction zone is the law. While you can be given a pricy ticket for striking a roadway worker, it in no way compares to the grief and traumatic experience that haunts a driver.

So, slow down and remember that better weather in the Midwest results in increased road construction.  It is reasonable to say that most highways and interstates in the greater St. Louis region will be undergoing some kind of repair or construction this spring, summer and fall.

Increased Roadway Work Considerations

Slow down. Be sure that you are obeying the speed limit and look for warning signs and lights that indicate road construction ahead. Pay attention. The three seconds that you look down at your phone to text could be the 120 yards you travel where you miss the warning signs.

Lane closures due to road repair impact traffic. Even if the roadwork does not close a lane, every driver should slow down when passing road construction for the very reason of avoiding a traumatic fatality such as yesterday.  Allow extra time in your travel whether it is your daily commute or a longer trip, plan on “Roadwork Ahead”.

MoDOT Works and First Responders

All too often we see a story about roadway workers, officers, motorist assists and first responders being hit and killed while simply doing their jobs. In many of these articles, we see horrible injuries and deaths due to other vehicles not seeing these professionals on the roadway or on the side of the roadway in spite of warning lights and signs.

Collectively, WE ALL need to slow down, pay attention and keep others safe as well as ourselves.

If You’ve Been Injured in a Motor Vehicle Crash….

If you’ve been injured in a motor vehicle crash, you will need legal assistance. Worse yet, if you have lost a loved one in a motor vehicle crash, you need to contact an expert car crash attorney.  Following a serious crash, individuals focus on simply trying to recover from serious injuries or put their lives back together after a loss in the family.  At The Cagle Law Firm, we understand how traumatic these events are and we understand the difficulty of even thinking about insurance negotiations in such as traumatic time.

Therefore, you should hire an expert, experienced car accident attorney to handle the legal aspects of the case so that you can focus on the things in life that truly matter.

Consultations are always free at our firm, call (314) 276-1681.