Fontana worker is killed on freeway

Growing up in the foothills of San Bernardino, John Knabenbauer spent hours scrawling maps of the state’s highways and sketching road signs.

When his family loaded up the camper for road trips that zigzagged through California, Oregon and Washington, he was always steering his parents off-course to check out a bridge or roadway from one of his maps.

No one in his family quite understood the fascination, but Knabenbauer made it clear that he was never going to spend time behind a desk if he could be on the open road. “I think the day he found out that people actually got paid to work on the freeway was the happiest day of his life,” said his sister, Cindy Cordova.

After a 17-year career as a maintenance worker for the California Department of Transportation, Knabenbauer was killed by a motorist early Wednesday as he was removing a dead dog from the 215 Freeway in San Bernardino. The 42-year-old Fontana resident was the second Caltrans worker killed this year and the 169th worker who has died on the job since the agency began tracking fatalities in 1924.

The governor issued a statement praising Knabenbauer as “a steadfast public servant.” Capitol flags will be flown at half-staff in Knabenbauer’s honor.

Knabenbauer and another worker had parked their large orange maintenance truck on the right shoulder of the freeway near the 5th Street offramp, activating the truck’s orange flashing light, CHP officials said.

Wearing a green fluorescent shirt and a helmet, Knabenbauer had crossed the offramp lane and was on a no-driving island when he was struck by a motorist heading to work. The driver was being interviewed, but no charges had been filed.

Knabenbauer suffered head injuries and died after being taken to Loma Linda University Medical Center, said Officer Joe Ramos of the California Highway Patrol. “My understanding is that he followed the safety procedures appropriately,” said Caltrans spokesman Ivy Estrada. “We are very saddened by this tragedy.”

Knabenbauer is survived by his wife and a daughter, 18.

maeve.reston@latimes.com