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September 10, 2010

Flagger killed by truck in construction zone

Effingham Daily News

ROBINSON — A flagman at a Crawford County construction zone was killed Wednesday when he was struck by a grain truck approaching a work zone on Illinois 1, state police reported Thursday.

    Wayne Petersen, 34, of Orland Park was airlifted from the scene and taken to Carle Foundation Hospital, Urbana, where he was pronounced dead at 8:48 p.m., just two hours after the accident.

    Illinois State Police reported Petersen was struck by the grain truck as he was running to avoid it. The flagman was headed for a ditch on the western side of the road as the grain truck bore down on the construction zone, but was hit by the truck in the ditch after its driver swerved to avoid stopped traffic at the last minute, police said.

    The truck driver, 60-year-old Garner Jack of Lawrenceville, swerved because he failed to see a passenger car stopped near the flagger at 6:30 p.m. at the entrance to the construction zone just south of Flat Rock Road — about eight miles south of the Robinson-Palestine junction — according to the police report.

    Jack was cited for failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident and failure to stop for a flagger or traffic control signal in a construction area.

    Champaign County Coroner Duane Northrup did not have an official cause of death to release at presstime, but an autopsy was scheduled for Thursday. The accident remains under investigation by Illinois State Police District 12 and the coroner’s office.

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