TROY TOWNSHIP, Ohio — A 56-year-old Minnesota truck driver died Saturday night after driving around road-closure signs into a closed Wood County work zone and striking a parked excavator, the Wood County Sheriff’s Office said.

Michael Ivorsen, 56, of Jordan, Minnesota, was driving a red 2019 Volvo semi-tractor without a trailer southbound on State Route 420 in Troy Township, between State Route 163 and Truman Road, when the crash occurred at 8:08 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 7, 2026. Deputies responded at that time.

According to the sheriff’s office, Ivorsen drove the semi-tractor around road-closure signs into the closed, inactive construction zone. Traveling south in the left lane, he struck a parked Caterpillar excavator that had been placed to protect a cut across the roadway. The tractor then left the roadway on the left and came to rest in the median.

Ivorsen did not appear to have been wearing a seat belt and was pronounced dead at the scene. Impairment is not suspected as a contributing factor, the sheriff’s office said.

Pemberville Fire and EMS, Troy Township Fire and EMS, Or’s Towing, and Ohio Department of Transportation representatives responded to assess the scene.

The crash remains under investigation by the Wood County Sheriff’s Office.

Sources: Fostoria Free Press, WTOL 11, BG Independent News

Photo: Wikimedia Commons / John MacKenzie