DETROIT – A 22-year-old woman has been charged in connection with the death of a construction worker on I-75 in Detroit.
Samiya Speed was arraigned Monday on charges of driving with a suspended license and operating while impaired causing death.
David Snell, 57, of Bay City, was working along northbound I-75 when a suspected drunken driver hit him. Michigan State Police had to shut down the interstate for hours at Warren Avenue.
Snell had worked for C.A. Hull Contractors in Walled Lake for more than 20 years. He was a father and husband.
Related: Construction workers plead for drivers to be careful after woman hits, kills man on I-75 in Detroit
Snell's company said he and a crew of his coworkers were putting up protective barriers for themselves early Thursday morning as they prepared for bridge repair work. That's when the driver of a SUV veered into the construction zone and rolled the vehicle into a work truck. Snell was pinned against a trailer. He suffered massive injuries and died.
Another one of the construction workers was hit by the vehicle, too, but is expected to be OK. He suffered minor injuries, but remains very shaken up after watching his coworker get killed.
State police suspect the woman driving the SUV was drunk at the time of the crash. She was arrested.
Lt. Michael Shaw said this was totally preventable.
"These types of incidents are totally preventable. You take the drunk from behind the wheel, and it just won't happen. This was a fully-marked construction zone, barrels and arrow boards, attenuator, everything you could possibly used to protect a construction worker who is trying to make a living, and here comes another driver who didn't do the right thing," said Shaw.
State police are investigating.