Highway 6 southbound in Navasota is back open Monday afternoon after being shut down for a few hours Monday morning due to an accident between a big rig and a Texas Department of Transportation vehicle.

TXDOT crews closed a lane for DPS Troopers who were reconstructing the scene of a fatal accident from December. Officials say that had the TXDOT truck not been there, this accident might have been worse.

A big detour Monday morning in Navasota after a big rig jackknifes into a TXDoT truck that was blocking lanes for DPS Troopers.

"We had our crash reconstruction team out there reconstructing a fatality we had on December 21 of last year," explained Trooper Jimmy Morgan with the Texas Department of Public Safety. When Troopers are reconstructing those scene they ask TXDoT crews to block lanes and help with traffic.

Road crews were directing traffic when the accident happened. No one was in the TXDoT vehicle when it was hit and the big rig driver wasn't hurt. The traffic attenuator, or the bumper carried by TXDoT crews wound up in the median.

Everyday thousands of vehicles drive Highway 6 in the Brazos Valley. Thanks to new road projects, work crews and others have to share the road with commuters.

"That's what it's there for," says Bob Colwell with the Texas Department of Transportation.

"It's to help absorb a crash if something were to happen and it did it's job today," said Colwell.

Colwell says that work crews are always at a higher risk when working along busy roads.

"The best way that I can describe it if you thought about your office being out on the highway, that you have traffic coming by you 75-80 miles an hour," said Colwell.

Officials want drivers to see the signs and stop before it's too late. The driver of that big rig was treated by medics at the scene and released.

No word yet on if he'll face any charges.