Authorities arrested a suspect Wednesday in the hit-and-run death of a highway worker as officials again pleaded for drivers to be careful in construction zones.
Daniel Salmeron, 51, was flagging traffic Tuesday evening in a construction zone on Federal Boulevard near Interstate 76 when a silver Honda zipped into a coned-off area and hit him. Salmeron died early Wednesday morning.
The car kept going, nearly hitting another worker.
Wednesday afternoon, the Colorado State Patrol said it had arrested 25-year-old Javier Vigil of Federal Heights in connection with the accident. State Patrol spokesman Eric Wynn said investigators had also seized a Honda suspected of being the car driven in the incident. Vigil is being held on suspicion of vehicular homicide and leaving the scene of an accident.
The accident happened about 5 miles from where two Colorado Department of Transportation workers repairing potholes were killed last summer. And it underscored the dangers that nighttime road crews face.
“It’s just really hard working at night when we have to deal with all the drunks and the kids who speed,” said Mona Bodaness, a co-owner of Rocky Mountain Flagging, Salmeron’s employer. “They don’t respect us on the road.”
In April, after the woman convicted of killing the two CDOT workers was sentenced, the Adams County district attorney announced he would no longer accept plea bargains for drivers who break the law in construction zones.
“My heart sank when I heard the news about another fatality, particularly in light of our efforts here to increase public awareness about all drivers’ responsibility for the safety of folks who work on the highways,” said Michael Goodbee, the assistant district attorney.
Salmeron was working with a crew repaving Federal Boulevard between Interstate 70 and 74th Avenue.
Bodaness said Salmeron wasn’t married and didn’t have any children, but he had numerous family members who visited the accident scene Wednesday. She said Salmeron was from Campo and started working for her a week ago, though he had flagged for construction before.
“He had a great attitude,” she said. “He was a very fun person to work around. It was just so hard to see his life taken away for no reason.”
Staff writer John Ingold can be reached at 720-929-0898 or jingold@denverpost.com.
