1 killed, 3 workers injured by car driving through New Jersey construction zone

A New Jersey road worker was killed and three others were injured when a motorist reportedly plowed into a sanitation truck, causing one of the vehicles to strike the victims.

The 9:45 a.m. crash shutdown the Camden County’s White Horse Pike on Wednesday, according to ABC News affiliate WPVI. Neither the woman driving the car nor the workers were identified, but all four victims were reportedly working for New Jersey American Water.

KYW News Radio described the incident as a three-car crash involving an elderly driver who a witness said “rapidly accelerated over the grass” and sent one of the workers into oncoming traffic.

One of the workers reportedly required hospitalization.

A spokeswoman for the water company told the Courier-Post that the injured employees were installing a meter pit when “a third-party vehicle” entered their workspace a little more than 10 miles east of Philadelphia.

Video from the crash site shows investigators surrounding a white Infiniti sedan with New Jersey state plates that endured significant front-end damage. The driver, whose vehicle is believed to have figured heavily into the incident, suffered minor injuries but was badly shaken, according to ABC News in Philadelphia.

Magnolia Police Department Chief John Huston told ABC News the crash occurred on a problematic strip of a thoroughfare authorities have recently tried to make safer.

“This is a dangerous stretch of the White Horse Pike,” Huston said.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said the private construction industry accounted for 1,008 deaths in 2022. That’s more than in any other workplace. According to The City, 24 New York City construction workers died on the job that same year.

A New Jersey construction worker was killed earlier this month when he fell into a large hole while installing a storm drain in Kenilworth, according to police. That project involved an excavator.