Arkansas State Police are working to find the driver who hit two construction workers during a police chase, killing one of them. The State Police Criminal Investigation Department is involved.
On September 18, West Memphis Police pulled over a maroon Corvette for a traffic violation, and the driver drove off. The high-speed chase went through a construction zone on I-55, where the Corvette struck two workers contracted by the Arkansas Department of Transportation and did not stop.
One of the workers struck was Justin Delgado, 36, of Lola, Texas, who was pronounced dead at the scene. The second worker was in critical condition at Regional One Health Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.
The suspect’s vehicle was later found on fire in Memphis by the Memphis Police Department, and the suspect remains at large. The investigation is ongoing.
Delgado was employed by Louis Company, a contractor out of Grain Valley, Missouri. The company’s website shows it has partnered with several state DOTs, has completed over 400 jobs and currently has 20 open jobs.
Arkansas law firm Taylor King Law later reported that 33-year-old Brandon Wayne Abernathy of Arkadelphia, Arkansas, was the injured worker, and that Abernathy and Delgado had been standing on the shoulder of the interstate when the Corvette attempted to use the shoulder to pass stopped traffic.
Action News 5 reported several days after the accident that surveillance footage showed two suspects wanted in connection with the accident, and that the Corvette had been stolen only a few hours before the car chase.
