SLIPPERY ROCK TWP — A motorist lingered for hours with injuries suffered Monday evening when his utility truck crashed through a road barricade at a construction zone on Route 8 and traveled down a hill, authorities said.

Rescuers did not find the injured driver, 53-yearold Raymond Crocker of Slippery Rock, until about 4 a.m. today — nine hours after the accident, state police said.

He had to be extricated from his truck and hoisted up the embankment before being taken by ambulance to Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh with moderate injuries.

His condition was not known this morning.

Crocker told investigators that he was driving south on Route 8 in his 2011 Chevy box truck about 7 p.m. when he came to the construction area just north of Duffy Road

For an unknown reason, the truck crashed through the barricade of signs that warned of the traffic work.

“The truck went through the barrier, through the (office) trailer and struck a dump truck,” said James Peters, the assistant chief for the Slippery Rock Volunteer Fire Company. “It then went about 75 feet down the hillside.

Police said Crocker later told investigators that he did not see the signs.

“That’s difficult to understand,” said police Cpl. Timothy Morando. “It would be hard to miss all those signs.”

Because no one apparently saw the crash and due to the darkness and the hidden position of the truck down the hillside, the wreck went unnoticed until early this morning.

Police said they did not know if Crocker had a cell phone with him in the truck.

“All he remembered was that he was on his way home and then went off the road,” Peters said.