The Summit County Sheriff’s Office is still investigating an accident that seriously injured two motorists early Thursday morning – including an Ohio Department of Transportation highway technician.
In a video captured by an ODOT tower cam, you can see a dump truck veer off the right side of the road on I-77 N near Graybill Road, before striking an ODOT pickup truck that was parked on the side of the highway just after 7 a.m.
Both the dump truck and the ODOT truck erupted into flames on impact as the cars rolled down a slight hill. Other motorists who witnessed the accident ran towards the burning vehicles to help.
ODOT said their employee suffered serious, but non-life threatening injuries. The Summit County Sheriff’s Office said the dump truck driver remains in the hospital with life threatening injuries.
“We’ll let the Summit County Sheriff’s Office do their investigation to determine what happened this morning, but what I can tell you is that I hear far too often from our folks that they see drivers paying attention to things other than the roadway. This has to stop. The law says move over and slow down for roadside workers. But if your attention isn’t on the road, you’ll never see them in the first place,” Ohio District 4 deputy director Gery Noirot said.
The injured employee has worked with ODOT for about 10 years.