TEXAS CONSTRUCTION WORKER LOSES LEG

A longtime construction worker lost his right leg and suffered burns early Tuesday after a suspected drunken driver struck him while he patched U.S. 75 in McKinney. Francisco Zuniga, 27, of Dallas was taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital after the accident, which occurred about 1:05 a.m. near Bloomdale Road on the southbound side of the highway, officials said.

The driver, Karen Walters Brooks, 55, of Paris, Texas, was taken into custody on a charge of intoxication assault with a vehicle. She was being held at the Collin County Jail, according to reports. Department of Public Safety Trooper Lonny Haschel said Ms. Brooks was driving her vehicle through the construction zone when Mr. Zuniga was hit. The impact sent him into the bucket of a front-end loader containing hot asphalt, he said.

His co-workers pulled him out and tried to remove the burning material.

“Other co-workers jumped in their pickup trucks to make sure that (the driver) didn’t get too far,” Trooper Haschel said. “They were able to box her in and get her stopped on 75 with the help of a McKinney police officer who was working the construction zone.”

Ron Johnston, the Texas Department of Transportation’s area engineer for Collin County, said Mr. Zuniga is employed by J.L. Steel of Roanoke, a subcontractor on the concrete resurfacing project. The workers were doing some patching early Tuesday, he said. Rick Garces, J.L. Steel’s safety officer, said Mr. Zuniga, an eight-year employee, was believed to be in stable condition.

Mr. Garces said it will be his job to investigate the accident and ways to prevent it from happening again. Mr. Zuniga had been working in a closed lane when he was injured, he said. “It kind of hits home that this is a dangerous industry that we work in,” he said. “We do everything we can to protect ourselves but we can’t control the traveling public.”

“When you have somebody that’s driving under the influence, supposedly, how do you guard against that? It’s tough.”