Oklahoma Highway Worker Killed By Fallen ‘Stop’ Sign When a Holding Cord Broke

JUNE 12, 2015

TULSA, OK

A Meramec worker died at a Tulsa hospital Thursday following an accident that occurred while he and another man were trying to fill a sinkhole along a highway near Westport.
Jerald Warden, 53, was directing David Burnes, 50, of Pawnee, as he operated a dump truck to a spot in which to load asphalt into a sinkhole in the median of the four-lane divided U.S. 412, about 200 feet east of Leroy Road just east of Westport in Pawnee County, according to an Oklahoma Highway Patrol report.

A bungee cord securing a stop sign in the bed of the truck broke, causing the sign to fall and hit Warden in the neck about 1:50 p.m. Thursday, the report states.

Warden was taken in critical condition to St. John Medical Center in Tulsa, where he died just after 3 p.m., according to the report.