By Cristy Loftis
A 37-year-old man working on a road project in Homosassa was killed Tuesday when a driver missed his merge lane and plowed into a construction zone marked by orange barrels.
The crash happened at about 11:45 a.m. on U.S. 19 in front of the new Walgreens Drug Store being built just north of U.S. 98.
Christopher A. Sloan, of Morriston, died at the scene and his co-worker Robert E. Nell, 30, of Belleview, was taken to Citrus Memorial hospital after being hit by a 1994 Ford Taurus, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
The two men were working for Triple T Construction, Inc. and were on traffic control duty, according to Triple T president George Thompson, who came to the site after the accident. The project related to creating a turn lane into the Walgreens entrance.
Driver Joshua J. Church, 22, of Dade City, was turning onto U.S. 19 from U.S. 98. For some reason, Church didn’t merge when the lane closed and continued north through barricades, eventually hitting Sloan and Nell, according to FHP Sgt. Jamie Mulverhill.
Church said he was on his way to Crystal River for a job interview. During the crash he hit his head, but said other than being shook up, he was OK.
Charges in the case are pending an investigation of the crash. Nell’s condition was unavailable Tuesday.
According to the U.S. Department of Transportation and National Center for Statistics and Analysis, in 2005, there were 111 fatal crashes in Florida construction zones.
Source: http://www.chronicleonline.com/articles/2007/08/08/news/news10.txt
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