A Florida Department of Transportation employee was critically injured on Tuesday morning after he was struck by a Dunnellon woman’s pickup truck at an intersection in Levy County.
At around 6:40 a.m., the woman was traveling southbound on County Road 337, near the intersection of State Road 121, in a 2019 Toyota Tacoma. Due to limited visibility from fog and smoke in the area, all southbound traffic was being rerouted to travel north on State Road 121, according to the Florida Highway Patrol incident report.
FHP stated that a male pedestrian, identified in the report as a 64-year-old FDOT employee from Chiefland, was standing behind traffic cones that were erected at the intersection of State Road 121 and County Road 337.
When the pickup truck reached the intersection, the driver – a 25-year-old woman from Dunnellon – failed to stop. The pickup truck proceeded to travel through the intersection, and the front of the vehicle struck a large traffic cone, according to the report.
Immediately after colliding with the traffic cone, the front of the pickup truck hit the FDOT employee.
An FHP sergeant noted in the report that the FDOT employee was airlifted to UF Health Shands Hospital in Gainesville. His condition was listed as “critical.”
The names of the driver and FDOT employee involved in the crash were not released by the Florida Highway Patrol.