MCLENNAN COUNTY (October 25, 2012)—Interstate 35 reopened Thursday after an early-morning crash that claimed the life of a construction worker and injured four others.

Department of Public Safety Trooper D.L. Wilson said Josh McGowan, 42, of Dallas, died at about 12:30 a.m. Thursday when he was run over by a construction truck that had been struck by a southbound truck tractor, semi-trailer.

McGowan worked for Brooklyn Sweeper, a highway construction clean-up company based in Dallas, Wilson said.

Wilson said an 18-wheeler crashed into the back of a crush truck that was being filled with construction debris on the shoulder of Interstate 35 at mile marker 345.

Another worker suffered a severed lower leg and was taken by ambulance from the scene to Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center, in Waco, then later flown to Scott and White Hospital, in Temple.

His condition was not available early Thursday.

Two more workers also were taken by ambulance to Hillcrest but their conditions were not known.

The driver of the crush truck also suffered minor injuries and was treated by EMS personnel at the scene.

The identities of those injured was not available early Thursday.

The highway was closed to southbound traffic for almost six hours but had re-opened by 6 a.m., Wilson said.

The construction area on the north side of Waco has proved lethal for drivers over the past several weeks.

Highway construction worker Manuel Rivas, 42, died Sept. 19 at mile marker 343 when he was struck by an 18-wheeler while working on the highway.

That truck driver failed to stop and DPS troopers still are searching for the truck.

Then on Oct. 19, Prek Gjokaj, 42, of Sterling Heights, Mich., died when his truck tractor slammed into the back of another 18-wheeler that had slowed for construction in the same area.