Caltrans Fatality Jams I-5 Traffic

A California Department of Transportation construction work e r was killed Thursday on Interstate 5 while trying to direct traffic around an early-morning accident in National City.

Terry S. Cavin, 39, was helping guide motorists around the site of a collision that injured three people at about 3 a.m. near the 24th Street exit when he was hit by a car.

Northbound traffic was backed up past the Mexican border and remained snarled for more than eight hours, a California Highway Patrol spokeswoman said.

The initial accident occurred when a northbound driver failed to heed orange traffic cones set up on the right side of the road to steer motorists around the construction, the CHP said.

Christopher Huber of San Diego struck an unoccupied Caltrans truck, injuring himself and his two passengers, said CHP spokeswoman Kim Hastings. Cavin, of Sacramento, then positioned himself behind the cones with a flashlight.

A second car then came through the cones and hit Cavin, knocking him 80 to 100 feet and into a concrete barrier, Hastings said. The car stopped, and all of its passengers fled.