AKRON, Ohio — A 51-year-old man has been sentenced to prison time for injuring an Ohio Department of Transportation worker in a crash last year, according to Summit County prosecutor James Pollack.
The driver, Gregory Pree, was charged with aggravated vehicular assault, a second-degree felony and operating a vehicle under the influence, a first-degree misdemeanor, according to a news release from the sheriff's office.
The crash happened May 12, 2022, just before 7 a.m. on Interstate 77 in Summit County near the City of Green, the release states.
Pree was heading north in a commercial dump truck when he left his lane and struck another vehicle parked on the berm occupied by a 64-year-old ODOT employee, authorities said. Both the driver and the ODOT employee were transported to a nearby hospital for treatment.
An investigation determined that Pree was operating the truck under the influence of illegal drugs, the release states.
That crash marked the 82nd time an ODOT crew member was struck by a vehicle that year.
On June 12, 2023, Pree pleaded guilty to aggravated vehicular assault, a felony of the second degree and OVI, a misdemeanor of the first degree.
On Tuesday, Summit County Common Pleas Court Judge Kathryn Michael sentenced Pree to a mandatory sentence of 5 to 7.5 years in prison.
You can watch more about the crash when it happened in the player below:
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