An incident involving a county highway worker being intentionally struck by a piece of riprap while working along a road in the Norman area Tuesday has police looking for the driver and passenger of a black Dodge pickup.
The worker, who did not request medical treatment at the scene, was struck in his left shoulder and could have been hurt much worse or even killed if the riprap had hit him in the head or somewhere else, county highway Superintendent Jerry Ault told county commissioners during their meeting Tuesday evening at the courthouse in Brownstown.
Riprap is large rocks often used to slow erosion along creek beds and streams
The incident, reported at 10:06 a.m., occurred in the 4000 block of North County Road 975W in northwestern Jackson County.
Ault said this type of incident has become more common in recent years.
People want the county to work on their roads, but become mad when they are inconvenienced by that work and harass county highway workers, Ault said.
Jackson County Officer Clint Burcham, who investigated the incident, said police are looking for the two males who were in the truck.
The passenger threw the riprap, he said.
"It was a black Dodge Dakota with a partial plate of TK24," Burcham said. "It was an extended cab I believe, and it had duct tape around the extended cab window part of it on the passenger side."
The worker said the truck went by him once and then came back by a second time. That’s when the riprap was thrown.
Burcham said the worker was outside of a county lightning loader using its sway arm to pick up brush when he was hit.
The window of the lightning loader was broken, but it’s unclear how that happened.
"I’m not sure if the rock broke the window or if he backed into the window," he said.
Anyone who has any information about the incident can call the sheriff’s department at 812-358-2141.
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Anyone with information about Tuesday’s involving a Jackson County Highway Department being intentionally struck by riprap can call the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department at 812-358-2141.
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