St. Joseph County, IN - Thursday afternoon an Indiana Toll Road maintenance worker was struck and killed while performing work outside of his vehicle.

The incident happened near the 81.5 mile marker on the eastbound lane in St. Joseph County, Indiana.

A preliminary investigation by the Indiana State Police indicates that a maintenance worker had parked his maintenance truck on the right shoulder on the Toll Road with emergency lights activated. The maintenance worker exited his vehicle and was sweeping debris from the right shoulder in front of his truck when a white 2010 Toyota Highlander that was travelling eastbound is alleged to have driven off the road to the right, side-swiping the maintenance truck and then striking the maintenance worker, killing him.

The maintenance worker has been identified as Ronald Smith, age 61 of Edwardsburg, MI.

This crash investigation is ongoing but the use of alcohol and drugs is not suspected of contributing to this crash.
Indiana law requires vehicles to move into an adjacent lane or slow to at least ten miles under the speed limit when approaching emergency vehicles on the side of the road with lights activated. Highway maintenance vehicles are included under this law.