Gov. Mike Parson has signed a bill into law that puts the brakes on drivers who strike a highway worker within a designated work zone. The wide-ranging transportation measure has a provision ordering the Missouri Department of Revenue to revoke the driver’s license of anyone whose “negligent actions or omissions” caused him or her to crash into a worker in a construction zone.
The new law, which takes effect August 28, also increases some user fees and creates more than a dozen new highway designations.
It is named after Lyndon Ebker, a MoDOT employee who was struck and killed by a distracted driver in Franklin County in 2016. Ebker, who was flagging drivers, flew 41 feet before coming to a rest. The bridge along Highway 100, where Ebker lost his life, holds his name to honor him.
Today we laid to rest our co-worker Lyndon Ebker. Slow down & pay attention in work zones. We all want to go home. pic.twitter.com/3ERJNrlSVp
— MoDOT St. Louis Area (@MoDOT_StLouis) April 12, 2016
After being a MODOT worker for 33 years, Ebker, 55, had switched to working part-time when the crash happened.
The driver, now 83 years old, was not thrown in jail. More than two years after the crash, Norman Haimila had his license stripped for life. He pleaded guilty last November in Franklin County to aggravated endangerment of a highway worker and has been fined $10,000.
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