A 53-year-old Canton man will face charges in connection with a hit-and-run accident Friday on I-575 in Woodstock that critically injured a construction worker, authorities said.
Kenneth Gonzalez is being held in Cobb County Jail, charged with driving under the influence in Cobb, according to Chief Calvin Moss of the Woodstock Police Department.
Gonzalez was located in Cobb shortly before 2 p.m., Moss said. The chief said Woodstock police would secure warrants for Gonzalez’s arrest on charges related to the hit-and-run.
The accident happened about 9:30 a.m. in a construction zone at the new Ridgewalk Parkway interchange on I-575 southbound before Towne Lake Parkway, Woodstock police spokeswoman Brittany Duncan said.
Indicating a tractor-trailer truck parked on the side of the road, Duncan told Channel 2 Action News that the worker "was standing beside the big rig when he was struck. ... The car came into the construction zone and struck him."
Duncan told the AJC that the worker, an employee of C.W. Matthews Contracting Co., sustained “pretty serious injuries” and was taken to WellStar Kennestone Hospital in Marietta.
The worker was in critical condition Friday afternoon at the hospital, Woodstock police said. His identity was not immediately available.
The motorist who struck the man fled the scene, Duncan said. She said the suspect was driving a gray, 2006 GMC Sierra pickup truck, and gave its tag number and a description of its damage.
Later Friday, in Cobb County east of Kennesaw, two people in a car recognized the vehicle from Channel 2’s noon news report on the accident.
“We were driving down Canton Highway and saw him sitting at the liquor store” at Canton and Blackwell roads, Crystal Rimert told Channel 2. She said she asked the person riding with her, “Isn't that who they were looking for on the news?”
Rimert called 911, and police soon had the pickup truck pulled over a short distance away, at Canton and Chastain Corner roads.
Rimert said the driver appeared to be intoxicated.
“He was very drunk,” she said. “He almost fell out of the car trying to get in at the liquor store.”
The sight made Rimert angry.
“Here you are, driving down the street as drunk as you can be and you have no idea the kind of damage that can put a family into,” she said.
A Channel 2 crew caught up with the truck as officers administered a field sobriety test to its driver, then handcuffed him and took him into custody. Video images showed damage to the truck’s right front bumper, passenger side door and mirror, and right front and rear fenders.
-- Staff photographer John Spink contributed to this report.
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