ODOT Employee Killed In Pawnee County Work-Related Accident

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol says a state highway department employee was killed while helping fill a sinkhole in Pawnee County Thursday afternoon. 

The OHP says 53-year-old Jerald Warden of Meramec was directing an Oklahoma Department of Transportation dump truck driver where to off-load asphalt just east of Westport on Highway 412. 

The accident happened just before 4 p.m. 

Troopers say a bungee cord securing a stop sign attached to the truck broke and the sign hit Warden in neck. Warden was taken to a Tulsa hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Officials said Jerald Warden had been an ODOT employee since 2006.