ZANESVILLE, Ohio — An Ohio Department of Transportation bridge inspector was killed on Monday morning, November 9, when a westbound semi-truck struck her inside the Interstate 70 construction zone in Zanesville, in Muskingum County. ODOT's District 5 announced the death of Jennifer Donley, 45, of Lancaster, who was working on the I-70 Reconstruction Project when the crash happened near mile marker 154, by the Maple Avenue off-ramp.
The Ohio State Highway Patrol said troopers arrived at mile marker 154 at 8:09 a.m. According to the patrol's preliminary investigation, a 2027 Freightliner Cascadia travelling westbound struck Donley while she was in the lanes of travel. The patrol identified the truck's driver as Brian Carter, 54, of Indianapolis, Indiana, and said he was not injured. Donley was pronounced dead at the scene, and the Muskingum County coroner was called in. No charges have been announced.
Source: Ohio State Highway Patrol preliminary account, reported Nov 9 2026
The crash shut down both westbound lanes of I-70 through Zanesville for hours on Monday morning. The Muskingum County EMA director said the closure ran between the U.S. 40 exit and the State Route 93 and Adamsville Road exit. Later reporting said the westbound lanes reopened at around 12:30 p.m., after roughly four hours, while investigators documented the scene. I-70 is one of the main east–west freight corridors across Ohio, and the closure forced morning truck and commuter traffic onto local detours.
Who Jennifer Donley was
Donley joined the Ohio Department of Transportation as a bridge inspector in 2022. On Monday she was inspecting bridges as part of the I-70 Reconstruction Project — the multi-year rebuilding of the interstate through downtown Zanesville. ODOT's director said she loved her work and was always upbeat, according to the reports of the department's announcement. District 5 of ODOT, which covers the Zanesville area, announced her death.
The road she was helping to rebuild
The I-70 Reconstruction Project is one of the largest road projects in this part of Ohio. According to a trade report on the project by Building Excellence, it runs through a roughly 3-mile corridor in downtown Zanesville and touches 16 bridges — the first major work on those bridges since the 1990s. The original construction budget was $88 million. The project began in the summer of 2021 and, after schedule changes, is now expected to conclude in the spring of 2028. The general contractor is Shelly and Sands, a company headquartered in Zanesville itself, working for ODOT District 5. The corridor is long and narrow, crossing railroads and rivers through the middle of the city, which limits the space crews and inspectors have to work in while traffic keeps moving beside them.
That is the setting investigators are now examining. Reporting on the crash says the Zanesville Police Department is leading the investigation, with the Ohio State Highway Patrol assisting, while the patrol's own preliminary investigation continues. Officials have not announced any charges, and they have not yet said what caused the Freightliner to strike Donley inside the work zone.
Source: WHIZ (Fox 5, Zanesville) and OSHP reporting, Nov 9 2026
Known: the crash happened at about 8:09 a.m. on Monday, Nov. 9, on westbound I-70 at mile marker 154 in Zanesville; the truck was a 2027 Freightliner Cascadia driven by a 54-year-old Indianapolis man who was not injured; both westbound lanes were closed for about four hours. Not yet known: why the truck struck the inspector, whether any charge will follow, and what the completed investigation will conclude. Those answers rest with the Zanesville police and the Ohio State Highway Patrol.
What happens next: investigators will complete their reconstruction of the crash, and any decision on charges will come only after that investigation is finished. For ODOT, the loss lands inside its own workforce — Donley was one of the inspectors responsible for checking the very bridges the project is rebuilding. No funeral or service details had been released in the reporting available on Monday. For the thousands of drivers and truckers who use I-70 through Zanesville, the westbound lanes are open again, but the work zone she was inspecting remains, and so does the investigation into how a routine morning of bridge work turned fatal.