State police said the 23-year-old driver from Merrillville, Ind., was heading north on I-65 around 9:35 a.m. when she moved from the left lane to the middle lane behind a semi and kept moving to the right, striking a barrel marking a construction zone about one mile south of the Ridge Road exit.
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Her 2013 GMC SUV hit another construction barrel before striking the worker, identified by the Lake County Coroner's Office as Brandon Beau Dewayne Fiscus, 35, of the 2600-block of East 450 South in La Porte.
He was cutting a joint for a patch in the pavement with a concrete saw on a caddy when he was hit. Fiscus was thrown onto the windshield of the SUV, hit a 2016 Ford F-250 that was directly behind him and landed about 100 feet in front of the pickup.
Fiscus was pronounced dead at the scene at 10:30 a.m. Deputies from the Lake County Coroner's Office said he died of massive blunt force trauma. The coroner's office said his manner of death is pending.
Fiscus was working for E & B Paving, which operates out of Anderson, Ind. Relatives said he had an 8-year-old son and a 6-year-old daughter.
The black SUV dragged the concrete saw, which ended up in right and middle lanes. State police shut down all lanes of northbound I-65 near the scene to investigate the crash. All lanes reopened around 12:45 p.m.
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Police said the construction on I-65 has been ongoing since May 2016 and zones were marked by barrels, cones and numerous signs.
The crash remains under investigation.