CalTrans Worker Killed
A Caltrans employee was struck and killed by a suspected drunk driver on Highway 99 near Chico over the weekend, according to the CHP.
The accident happened late Sunday evening in the northbound lanes of Highway 99 near the Hamilton Nord Cana Highway in Chico. Caltrans had set up a traffic block for CHP which was investigating an earlier fatal crash when 45-year-old Russell Hodge of Corning drove through the closure.
Hodge's Ford F250 truck slammed into a Caltrans employee, 57-year-old Gary Smith, who was working on the road closure and continued traveling on Highway 99.
CHP Officer White, who was investigating the previous fatal accident, then stopped Hodge who was subsequently arrested and booked into the Butte County Jail on Second Degree Murder Charges.
Smith had worked for Caltrans for 33 years.
