Interstate worker injured in Augusta County Traci Moyer, tmoyer@newsleader.com 2:15 p.m. EDT June 16, 2016
(Photo: Traci Moyer/The News Leader)
Greenville — One man is fighting for his life and another was injured after a woman ran her minivan off Interstate 81 and hit them Thursday morning.
Marlene Jackson, 53, of Troutdale, was charged with reckless driving after Virginia State Police say the 2006 Kia minivan she was driving struck the two contractors.
Virginia State Police Trooper J.S. Martin responded to the accident at 6:55 a.m.
According to a police investigation, Jackson’s vehicle ran off the left side of I-81 at mile marker 213, struck a guardrail, then crossed southbound lands and ran off the right side of the road striking a cement bridge guardrail.
Two construction workers, contracted by the Virginia Department of Transportation to paint the I-81 bridge that spans U.S. 11 where the accident occurred, were on the bridge at the time of the accident.
Both men jumped onto the guardrail where one man was grazed by the Kia’s bumper and another man fell 15-feet over the guardrail to a grassy embankment below, according to a press release from the state police.
The worker who fell, a 49-year-old man from New Jersey, was flown by helicopter to UVA Medical Center with life-threatening injuries, state police said.
Sandy Myers, a VDOT spokesperson for the Staunton District, said the men are contract workers from KVK Contracting Inc. out of Tarpon Springs, Florida.
When contacted three hours after the accident, employees at KVK said they were notified of the situation, but did not have any details about the incident or the man’s condition.
The crash remains under investigation by the Virginia State Police.