Flagger who died: 'I'm your guardian angel'

BEAVERTON, Ore. - It's a high risk job - and Saturday it has taken another life.

A flagger died when a dump truck backed over him in broad daylight on a Beaverton street.

Witnesses said this man made a big impact on the neighborhood in a short time.

It happened on Southwest 173rd Avenue near Walker Road. Neighbors said the construction was part of an extension project, but Washington County's Web site said it also was replacing a culvert on 173rd Avenue. The county said crews have been at it since July - and the project was just days from completion.

"This just looks like a freak accident," said Sargeant James Shumway, a Beaverton Police Department detective.

Beaverton police said 51-year-old John Sparks was just doing his job, flagging a car through a construction site on Northwest 173rd Avenue.

"I saw the dump truck coming back," said witness Pamela Magnusson, "and it was awfully close - maybe inches - between him and the vehicle backing up. And I thought, 'that's very dangerous, something could happen.'"

Investigators said Sparks was standing in the blind spot behind this dump truck when he was hit. They said he was "struck and knocked down and unfortunately run over before he could get out of the way."

Sparks, who reportedly worked for Mama Jo's Flagging, died immediately. His co-workers, obviously distraught, watched as investigators re-constructed the accident.

"There are a lot of protocals these companies have to make sure their workers are safe," Shumway said.

Safety, it seems, was a priority for Sparks. Neighbors tell KATU the friendly man was concerned that residents got in and out of this neighborhood okay.

"He had told [a man in our neighborhood] that he was his guardian angel for the day," Magnusson said. "That's what he told this guy this morning."

Magnusson talked to Sparks just moments before the accident. She said he offered to fix her front yard, and other areas impacted by the construction work.

"He was going to talk to his supervisor to put fences up to block the water," Magnusson said. "He just seemed like a great man."

Now she questions the importance of this road work that would have connected two major streets.

"Actually," she said, biting her lip, "I'm sure it's not worth a man dying over it."

The driver of that truck reportedly had more than 10 years experience with a company called Mountain Trucking. Per Oregon Safety and Health Administration he was checked to see if drugs or alcohol were a factor. But investigators said they don't believe anything criminal happened; it was just an accident, they said.

Neighbors have said they are putting candles on their porches as a memorial to the man that touch their lives. An impromptu memorial has been constructed near the site where Sparks died: a cross, a sign and two lit candles.