23-year-old worker killed when semitruck veers into construction zone, WV cops say
A 23-year-old construction worker was fatally struck by a semitruck while doing asphalt work on a West Virginia highway, officials said.
Officers responded to the incident at about 11 a.m. April 14 in Kanawha County, state police said in a news release.
Witnesses told troopers they saw the driver — identified as 28-year-old Anvar Sabirov from New York — “entering the work zone with his head down” on Interstate 77, according to the release. He was arrested and charged with vehicular manslaughter, police said.
The victim was identified by police as James Harper from Beckley.
Harper and his work crew were patching the turnpike with the right lane closed when he was hit, the West Virginia Department of Transportation said in a news release.
“The driver of the tractor-trailer swerved to avoid the work zone, but the trailer swung into the work zone and struck the victim,” according to the release.
The investigation is ongoing, officials said.
Kanawha County is about a 160-mile drive southeast from Columbus, Ohio.
