Worker Killed Filling Potholes

St. Clair Shores, MI (WorkersCompensation.com) – The driver of a car that struck and killed a construction worker earlier this week has turned himself into authorities.

Officials said that Zach Morisette, 26, was working as part of the Macomb County Department of Roads crew fixing a broken manhole cover on I-94 when he was hit by a vehicle and killed around 3 p.m. on Monday. The vehicle fled the scene, officials said, but was found on Wednesday.

“The vehicle has been seized and we are processing it for evidence," MSP officials said in a statement at the time. “We have developed leads into the identity of the driver and again would hope that that person would turn themselves in."

By Wednesday afternoon, the St. Clair Shores Police Department tweeted that a suspect had turned himself in. “Thank you to anyone who left us a tip, the media for their coverage and our thoughts are with Zack’s family,” the department tweeted.

The suspect had not yet been identified.

The victim’s brother said Morisette had survived cancer three times in his short life.

"He's going to be missed, so much," his brother Rodney told Fox 2 Detroit. "He was loving, loyal, caring and he just loved his family more than any words could ever describe.”

Michigan Police said that since the beginning of the COVID-19 driving across the state has been out of control. More than 50 people have died on the roads this year than at this point last year, despite fewer people being out on the road.

According to the National Safety Council, traffic fatalities per miles driven is up since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The U.S. saw an estimated 20 percent increase in the fatality rate – fatalities per miles driven – between January and June 2020 compared to the same six-month period in 2019. The increase, the highest jump NSC has calculated for a six-month period since 1999, comes when the number of miles driven has fallen 17 percent, and the total number of deaths is up only 1 percent.

"Even without traffic, our roads were no safer," said Lorraine M. Martin, president and CEO of the National Safety Council. "It is heartbreaking to see the carnage on our roadways continue, especially when our medical professionals should be able to focus intently on treating a pandemic rather than preventable car crashes. These numbers underscore our urgent need to change the culture of safety on our roads."

States that saw the largest increases in the first six months of 2020 were Vermont with a 91 percent increase; Connecticut, with at 44 percent increase; the District of Columbia, with a 42 percent increase; South Dakota, with a 34 percent increase; Rhode Island, with a 31 percent increase; Arkansas, with a 21 percent increase; and Missouri, with an 18 percent increase.

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