A Connecticut Department of Transportation employee was killed Friday morning on Interstate 95 near Exit 20 in Fairfield while doing debris removal on the shoulder. Elvin Hernandez, 60, had worked for the DOT since 2010. Police say he stepped out of his parked dump truck when a 2006 Buick Lucerne entered the grassy shoulder and struck him. He died at a nearby hospital.
The driver, Edward Myers, showed multiple signs of impairment and admitted to taking heroin before the crash, according to police. He has been charged with manslaughter and is scheduled to appear in GA-2 Bridgeport Superior Court on Sept. 28. Governor Ned Lamont ordered flags lowered to half-staff to coincide with Hernandez’s funeral.
For those of us here on the Suncoast, the story lands differently. Our road crews work the shoulders of I-75, US-41, and the bridges over the Intracoastal in heat, traffic, and storm season conditions. Florida’s Move Over law requires drivers to shift a lane away from stopped utility and maintenance vehicles, or slow to 20 miles per hour below the speed limit when a lane change isn’t possible. Fourteen years of service ended in one moment on a Friday morning. The next time you pass an orange vest, what will you do differently?
