Published: Monday, July 11, 2011, 6:36 PM Updated: Monday, July 11, 2011, 6:36 PM
By Eunice Lee/The Star-Ledger

BORDENTOWN — A concrete barrier meant to guide traffic instead crushed a truck driver to death today at a construction site on the New Jersey Turnpike.

The barrier, weighing at least one ton, fell off a flatbed trailer onto Carmen DiLuzio as he prepared to unload it at the site in Bordentown, officials said.

DiLuzio, 51, worked for Tipton Trucking Company of Oxford, Pa. He had just positioned his flatbed truck, carrying several heavy concrete barriers, next to a crane just before 8 a.m. and was preparing to unload, said State Police spokesman Sgt. Stephen Jones.

One of the barriers — which weigh anywhere between one to 12 tons, said trucking company owner Frank Tipton — crushed DiLuzio.

“He began to unlatch straps and binders used to secure the barriers on his trailer and one of the barriers on his flatbed actually fell off the tractor trailer and crushed him,” Jones said.

DiLuzio was pronounced dead at 8:19 a.m. at the scene of the Turnpike widening site near exit 7 northbound.

DiLuzio, of Wilmington, Del., had worked for Tipton Trucking since March 2010.

“We were shocked. This guy is well experienced. He hauls these all the time,” said Tipton.

Tipton Trucking is a subcontractor for South State, Inc., of Bridgeton, which is in charge of the massive Turnpike widening project between Interchanges 6 and 9.

Tipton said the death was his company’s first fatal incident in its four years on the project. Safety officials from Tipton Trucking were on scene yesterday, said the owner. No lanes were closed due to the accident.

Jones said State Police and other agencies are investigating and OSHA has been notified