Driver Arrested After Striking Construction Flagger (Photo)

CENTRAL POINT, Ore. – Deputies arrested a Central Point man who drove through an active road construction zone on Friday, striking a flagger holding a stop sign. The flagger received minor injuries but was not transported for medical treatment.

On June 8, 2018, at approximately noon, dispatch received a 911 call reporting an incident in the construction zone on Table Rock Road between Airport Road and Hamrick Road. Witnesses later told deputies that a driver stopped in the southbound lane, later identified as Martin Ward Noland, 54, of the 1300-block of Marilee Street, expressed irritation with the traffic control in the construction zone.

Noland proceeded past the flagger, striking the flagger in the leg with the front of his vehicle and running over the flagger’s stop sign. Noland encountered a second flagger holding a stop sign, and continued southbound. Noland was eventually forced to stop due to a construction vehicle in the roadway.

A Knife River Corporation supervisor spoke with Noland and called 911. Noland proceeded through the construction zone when the roadway was cleared.

Less than an hour later, deputies spotted Noland driving in the area and stopped him at the intersection of Hamrick Road and Biddle Road. Noland was arrested without incident and transported to the Jackson County jail.

Charges at lodging included recklessly endangering a highway worker (two counts), recklessly endangering another person, reckless driving, and harassment. The case will be referred to the district attorney’s office for prosecution.

Anyone who witnessed the Friday incident is asked to call Deputy John Richmond at (541) 774-6800. Refer to case #18-11537.

Deputies remind drivers of the importance of obeying traffic control devices and flaggers in construction zones. For more information on highway work zone safety, follow this link to a fact sheet from the Oregon Department of Transportation: https://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/Safety/Documents/WorkZoneFactSheet.pdf.

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