A worker was killed this morning while doing road construction in South Lyon.

It happened around 10:30am on Pontiac Trail, where a repaving project has been taking place between 11 Mile and Silver Lake Road. Emergency crews attempted to resuscitate 20-year-old Emmanuel Gonzalez-Garcia of Detroit but were unsuccessful. South Lyon Police Lieutenant Chris Sovik tells WHMI officers responded on a report of a pedestrian lying unconscious that got hit by a vehicle and initially thought a construction worker might have got clipped by a vehicle going around the construction zone. However, once on scene, officers learned the worker had been run over by a semi-truck in the work zone that was backing up and delivering asphalt. Sovik says the semi-truck driver was backing up to the scene to load asphalt into a paving machine and did not see Gonzalez-Garcia, who was on the road doing testing to see if the temperature of the fresh asphalt was acceptable to continue driving on it.

The victim’s family was notified this morning. Gonzalez-Garcia was employed by Ajax Paving, one of the contractors working on the project for the Road Commission for Oakland County. The company's CEO, James Jacobs, issued a statement saying it's investigating the incident and extending its sympathies to Gonzalez-Garcia's family. The driver of the truck is employed by Warren-based Piper Trucking. Sovik says its an unfortunate accident in which a young man lost his life and there are no winners in the situation. said the driver of the semi was very distraught, noting he has been driving a truck for around 40 years and nothing like this has ever happened to him.

Nobody witnessed the incident, which remains under investigation by South Lyon Police, with assistance from the Oakland County Sheriff's Office accident investigation team and a Michigan State Police motor carrier enforcer. After findings are complete, Sovik says everything will be forwarded to the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office for case review. Picture courtesy of WXYZ. (JK/JM)