JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- A city employee died Tuesday afternoon after a Jacksonville Transportation Authority bus struck his bucket truck as he working on a traffic light.

Police said the driver of the bus failed to see a flag man or the traffic engineering truck in the intersection of Commonwealth Avenue and Melson Street and struck the truck, knocking technician 52-year-old Cesar Solomon out of the bucket.

"A JTA bus that was being driven westbound on Commonwealth apparently didn’t either see or pay attention to the person on the ground trying to divert the traffic away. That person jumped out of the way," said Jacksonville Sheriff's Office spokesman Ken Jefferson. "The impact caused the person up top to fall down to his death."

Ron Thigpen said he worked with Solomon in the city's traffic division. He said he was stunned when he heard the news.

"I just saw the guy. I just saw him -- it wasn’t an hour beforehand," said Thigpen. "A chill went all over my body. A woman in my office, Ms. Mack, told me about it and she was freaked out too."

Police said it appeared that the work crew was following proper safety procedures when the wreck took place.

While Thigpen said he could not talk about Tuesday's situation specifically, he told Channel 4 that people often don't pay attention to crews working on traffic lights.

"There're people flying by us all the time. Not just with those guys, but with any construction people on the side of the road. People are flying, and we put up with it all the time," Thigpen said.

Investigators haven’t said whether that's what happened with this crash.

"We don't believe that there was any alcohol involved. We don't know whether speed was involved. That's why we have our traffic homicide people here conducting this investigation right now," said Jefferson.

The bus driver, whose name has not been released, complained of chest pains and was taken to Shands Jacksonville Medical Center to be checked out.

JTA officials said the driver has been taken off duty. They also said the driver would undergo an immediate drug test, which is part of protocol in situation like Tuesday's.

Traffic homicide detectives investigating the incident said it did not appear that drugs were involved in the crash. The investigation is ongoing.