A highway worker died Tuesday afternoon after being struck by a car on Route 13 in Somerset County, according to Maryland State Police.

The worker, identified as 70-year-old Dipakkumar Patel, was sitting inside his work vehicle parked at a highway maintenance project on the northbound side of the roadway at about 12:40 p.m. when, “for reasons unknown,” a Salisbury woman driving a Dodge Caravan collided with the rear of his car near King Miller Road, according to a news release.

The woman driving the Caravan, 31-year-old Amanda Correa, had a passenger in her car, police said. Both were taken to a nearby hospital. Patel was pronounced dead at the scene.

State police are still investigating the crash.

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“The continued disregard for roadway workers is unacceptable and everyone must do better,” said Shanteé Felix, a spokesperson for the State Highway Administration. “We need motorists to slow down, move over and pay attention on our roadways — especially in our work zones. Each and every one of our workers deserves to work and return home safely.”

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Patel is the second worker killed along a Maryland highway in the past week. Robert Dempsey, 40, of Ellicott City, was killed in a crash on Sunday while setting up traffic cones on the Capital Beltway.

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Maryland’s highway work zones are less deadly but still too dangerous, officials say

The deaths came just days after the Maryland Department of Transportation and SHA observed National Work Zone Awareness Week.

Traffic deaths fell 18% between 2024 and 2025, signaling a slight improvement in highway safety, according to the National Work Zone Safety Information Clearinghouse. But new data suggests that aggressive drivers speeding through work zones continue to put workers at risk.

Wiley Rhymer, president of Local 6368 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, called the recent deaths a “deadly failure” by the state, adding that his organization wants better protections for workers, including physical barriers on highways, aggressive enforcement of work zone laws and increased staffing.

“You can wear the vest, set the cones, sit in a marked car, follow every rule in the book and still die on these roads,” he said. ”That’s the reality the State keeps sending workers into. Not because they don’t know better, but because they haven’t done enough to fix it."