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Injured road worker speaks out about hit-and-run that killed his colleague

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One of the road workers injured in a hit-and-run at a Montreal construction site last week says he's had enough.

Fabrizio Altieri, 39, wants drivers to know how dangerous it is when they try to cut corners around work sites.

"I understand the frustration of anyone that is driving who finds the street blocked so you cannot go where you have to go. But I would love to make everybody understand that we are working, we are not playing," he told CTV News nearly a week after the incident, still recovering from the event.

Altieri reports he suffered a concussion and bruising on his upper body -- but his coworker, also a 39-year-old flagman, was much more severely injured, dying of his injuries in hospital on Monday. 

DRIVER TURNS HIMSELF IN

Last Wednesday night, Altieri and his coworker were installing traffic cones at a paving site near Industriel and Saint-Jean-Baptiste Boulevards in the Pointe-Aux-Trembles borough.

Altieri says a driver tried cutting through the closed street, and when they tried stopping the car, it allegedly accelerated with the two workers on the hood.

He said the driver then swerved, throwing them off, before fleeing the scene.

According to police, a 68-year-old man turned himself in the following day. The investigation is ongoing, but no charges have been laid.

A DANGEROUS JOB 

Altieri says he's been hurt by a driver twice in his 25-year career, with both incident occuring within the last month.

Drivers have become more aggressive in recent years, he says, noting that his family is increasingly worried for his safety.

"My wife, she's scared every day that I go to work. She lost the security," he said. "She's always scared that something [will] happen; she calls me 10 times a day. And I cannot blame her."

He's urging drivers to exercise caution around those telltale orange cones.

Correction

A previous version of this story reported the second road worker was still in critical condition as of Tuesday. Police later confirmed that the worker actually succumbed to his injuries on Monday.

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