Driver arrested after construction worker killed in east side crash

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - A construction worker was hit by a vehicle as he walked Tuesday afternoon on the city's east side by a suspected impaired driver, police said.

The incident happened around 1:30 p.m. near East 10th and North Wittfield streets. The construction worker, Bradley Arthur, 54, Spencer, a supervisor working with a crew repaving 10th Street, was walking west on 10th Street when a vehicle struck him from behind.

Officials said on Wednesday that Arthur died at IU Methodist Hospital from his injuries.

Arthur was wearing the required neon yellow safety vest at the time of the crash, and investigators said lanes were not closed in the immediate area where the accident happened.

The driver, Lindsey Gipson, 24, Indianapolis, had her 5-year-old daughter in the black Chrysler Cirrus with her, police said, and was arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated after failing two of three field sobriety tests, Indianapols Metropolitan Police Department said.

Police said an officer on the scene caught Gipson putting two pills into her mouth, and investigators said she admitted to them that she had consumed a number of narcotic substances. The pills police said she took were suboxone - a prescription drug used to treat opiate addiction.

She initially lied about her name and her daughter's name, police said Wednesday, and refused to take a blood test. Police had to obtain a warrant in order to draw blood.

She told police she turned back in the car when her daughter asked her a question, and that's when she hit something. Unaware of what she had hit, she said, she continued on to Wittfield Street, where she pulled over.

The news of Arthur's death hit friends hard.

"Brad was one of those guys who would just come through the door and always had a smile on his face. He always brought a smile to everybody else's face. It's pretty tragic for us," said Jim Sandlin, Indianapolis, who has known Arthur for 10 years.

He said the two chatted last Saturday. While they worked for different companies, Sandlin said they worked on the same projects together.

"I will definintely miss him," Sarndin said.

Gipson was preliminarily charged with operating a motor vehicle causing serious bodily injury, a Class D felony; operating a vehicle while intoxicated with a passenger less than 18 years of age, a Class D felony; and operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated causing endangerment, a Class A misdemeanor.

She was also wanted on two unrelated warrants, one from Marion County for driving with a suspended license, and the other from Johnson County for theft.