The Ohio Department of Transportation is planning to require fencing at some overpass construction sites after Marquise Byrd (pictured) was killed last month
Ohio state has plans to require fencing at some overpass construction sites after a Michigan man was killed when a sandbag was tossed onto an interstate and smashed through his car windshield.
The change comes after 22-year-old Marquise Byrd, of Warren, Michigan, died on December 22, three days after a car he was riding in was struck by a sandbag tossed from an overpass onto Interstate 75 in Toledo.
Authorities have charged four teenagers with throwing the sandbag and other objects at cars.
The bridge where the sandbag was dropped had fencing, but much of it was removed for a reconstruction project.
Now, a new rule is being drafted that will require temporary fencing during work on overpasses that already have fencing and during projects to add permanent fencing to overpasses, said Matt Bruning, a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Transportation.
‘There shouldn’t be any period of time where there isn’t any fencing,’ he said.
A year ago, the state agreed to increase the number of highway overpasses with fencing.
The plans call for adding permanent fencing to about 160 overpasses over five years at an estimated cost of just under $1 million per year, Bruning said.
Byrd, of Warren, Michigan, died on December 22, three days after a car he was riding in was struck by a sandbag tossed from an overpass onto Interstate 75 in Toledo
The bridge where the sandbag was dropped had fencing, but much of it was removed for a reconstruction project. Marquise Byrd is (pictured right)
Byrd, who was killed in December when a sandbag was thrown onto Interstate 75 in Toledo from an overpass, had plans to pop the question to his girlfriend on his birthday, a friend said.
‘It would have been a surprise to her, and only his mother knew of his plan,’ Lillian Diallo said to People.
‘He was robbed of being a married father, a husband taking care of his family and living the dream that was almost in his grasp.
‘In his mind, that would have been the greatest gift he could have got on his birthday.’
The sandbag hit Byrd in the head and he died at the hospital.
‘He was just in a car riding like any of us, not bothering anybody, and the sandbag came down and came down on his side of the car,’ Diallo added.
Now, a new rule is being drafted that will require temporary fencing during work on overpasses that already have fencing and during projects to add permanent fencing to overpasses. Byrd is pictured right with family and friends
Byrd was a front seat passenger in a southbound vehicle on Interstate 75 (above) in Toledo, Ohio, when he was struck by a sandbag
Four teenage boys, ages 13 to 15, have been charged with murder in an Ohio juvenile court in connection to Byrd’s death.
The teens initially were charged with the juvenile equivalent of felonious assault. The driver of the car, who has not been identified, suffered minor injuries.
Byrd, who was the father of a two-year-old boy, was sitting in the front passenger seat of a car when the sandbag smashed through the windshield on December 19.
Officers received a call at 10.10pm on December 19. They responded to the scene and saw the teenagers leaving the area after the incident.
The Lucas County Coroner’s Office said Byrd died of blunt-force trauma injuries to the head and neck.
Police and a prosecutor have said the teens threw other objects from the overpass that night.
The vehicle in which Byrd was sitting on December 19 is seen in the above photo
Byrd’s cousin, Shaveontae King said she has no sympathy for the teens and wants authorities to charge them as adults.
‘My auntie has to bury her son. He’s gone. He’s never coming back,’ she King said.
‘She’s holding up the best she can.’
King told The Toledo Blade: ‘I would appreciate if [the boys’ parents] could at least call my auntie and tell her they’re sorry.’ She said Byrd was like a brother to her.
When asked to describe him, she said: ‘Young, energetic, outgoing, lovable. He had a bright smile.’
The teens have been charged with murder and vehicular vandalism in the Michigan man’s death, and they appeared in court last Thursday, when they entered pleas of denial to the charges.
Authorities have charged four teenagers (one pictured right) with throwing the sandbag and other objects at cars
The teens were charged with murder and vehicular vandalism in Byrd’s death, and they appeared in court last Thursday, when they entered pleas of denial to the charges
Lillian Diallo, an attorney for the victim’s family, told The Blade that the teenagers should have been home instead of out late on the night the sandbag was dropped onto the interstate.
‘You dropped a 30-pound sandbag over an overpass,’ Diallo said. ‘Where is your conscience? Where is your morality? How could you do that to another human being?’
Ohio also agreed to add the fencing at the urging of Randy Budd, whose wife, Sharon Budd, suffered brain damage when teenagers dropped a rock from an interstate overpass onto their car in central Pennsylvania in July 2014.
Those four teenagers were sentenced to prison in the case.
In another case, five Michigan teenagers were charged in October 2017 with second-degree murder in the death of Kenneth White, a father-of-four.
White was killed by a rock that smashed through the windshield of his van as he was heading home from work.