Suspected DUI Driver Kills Construction Worker in Crash on I-580

A construction worker was killed in a suspected DUI crash early Saturday morning on westbound Interstate Highway 580 in Oakland, according to the California Highway Patrol. The victim has been identified as Miguel Angel Rodriguez Delacruz, a 33-year-old resident of Oakland, according to the Alameda County coroner’s bureau.

Sometime just after midnight a suspected DUI driver crashed into an area that had been closed for construction on westbound Highway 580 at Lakeshore Avenue, according to CHP Officer Sean Wilkenfeld. The two lanes on the far left had both been closed off with cones for paving operations, Wilkenfeld said. The driver crossed into the closed area and struck Delacruz, then also hit a pickup truck and a generator before coming to a rest. Delacruz was pronounced dead at the scene, according to Wilkenfeld.

“So we had a drunk driver who drove into a construction closure and killed someone who was trying to earn a living on the freeway,” Wilkenfeld said.

The driver has not yet been identified, and details about the vehicle involved in the fatal crash were not immediately available. Investigators closed three lanes on the left-hand side of the roadway until roughly 7:15 a.m., according to Wilkenfeld.

A “multidisciplinary accident investigation team,” comprised of personnel with a higher level of training than other officers, responded to the scene to collect evidence, Wilkenfeld said.

The team wanted to collect all the evidence they could from the scene of this morning’s crash because it took a man’s life, and the victim was a construction worker who was just out doing his job, Wilkenfeld said.

By Bay City News

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