Caltrans worker killed in Kearny Mesa accident honored

SAN DIEGO - During an annual memorial in honor of California road workers who have lost their lives in the line of duty, state officials paid tribute to a longtime Caltrans employee from the San Diego area killed last year in a fall from a state Route 163 bridge.

"William Casdorph was the 189th Caltrans worker who went to work and never made it back home,'' California Transportation Department Director Laurie Berman said during the Sacramento ceremony.

Casdorph, 57, was with a crew doing landscaping and street-sweeping work when he fell off the overpass above Interstate 805 in Kearny Mesa about 3 a.m. Sept. 19.

Medics took the Chula Vista resident to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Casdorph, who was survived by his wife and three adult daughters, had worked for the state agency for almost 20 years.

During the memorial, an honor guard added an orange highway cone representing Casdorph's legacy to a diamond-shaped display of 188 others.

"The work our employees do is vital for the safety of our residents and visitors,'' Berman said during the event on the west steps of the state Capitol. "I am committed to continue pushing new safety measures that will help protect our employees and the public.''

In 2018, more than 7,000 work-zone traffic crashes occurred on California roadways, according to Caltrans. About 2,300 of them caused injuries, and 46 resulted in a fatality.

Nationally, drivers and passengers account for 85 percent of the people who are killed in work zones, the state agency reported.