October 07, 2009|By Michael Dresser | Michael Dresser,michael.dresser@baltsun.com
The stoplight at the northern Baltimore County intersection where a Baltimore Sun editor was killed in a collision with a United Parcel Service truck Monday morning is in good repair and was operating in a standard green-yellow-red manner at the time of the crash, officials said.
The investigation into the death of business editor Timothy M. Wheatley was continuing Tuesday, but the early indication was that one of the drivers involved in the crash ran a red light, according to Baltimore County police spokesman Bill Toohey.
Wheatley, 48, was killed and his 9-year-old daughter critically injured at the intersection of York and Corbett roads in Monkton. Police said the veteran journalist was making a left turn onto southbound York Road when a northbound delivery truck operated by UPS driver Kevin P. Callahan, 28, rammed into the driver's side of Wheatley's 1999 Honda Civic. Wheatley was pronounced dead at the scene. His daughter was in critical but stable condition Tuesday afternoon at Johns Hopkins Children's Center.
The UPS truck crashed through at least two layers of white picket fence at Marathon Farms on the west side of York before coming to rest in a field. Tuesday morning, a worker was on the scene, repairing the shattered fence. Shards of broken brake lights littered the intersection.
The junction of York and Corbett - named Piney Hill Road on the west side of York - is controlled by a red light that normally operates as a blinking yellow light on York and a blinking red on Corbett and Piney Hill. The light was installed last September to handle the high volume of school bus traffic going to and from Hereford Middle School just east of York on Corbett, according to State Highway Administration spokesman Dave Buck.
At times of peak bus travel in the morning and afternoon, the signal operates in a standard green-yellow-red manner, Buck said. But the signal also includes a sensor that detects when traffic is backing up on Corbett at other times. When the sensor detects a backup, it tells the signal to revert to standard stoplight operation for 15 minutes to relieve congestion on Corbett, Buck said.
The highway agency tested the equipment Tuesday morning and found it was working normally, Buck said.
Toohey said an eyewitness who was in a vehicle on York Road told investigators of being stopped at a red light there at the time of the crash. Jeff Potter, a nearby resident who went through the intersection just before the crash, which Toohey said was called in to 911 at 8:54 a.m., said he passed through a green light from Piney Hill Road.
"When I left, it was a green light. Normally it's not," he said.
The intersection is at the summit of a high point known as Piney Hill. From there, York Road descends at a steep grade to the north and south. The speed limit on York is 45 mph; on Corbett it is 30 mph.
Toohey said the accident investigation could take a month or more to complete.
Residents of the area near the intersection say it is a dangerous corner with poor sight lines - particularly for those turning left off Corbett or trying to cross York. Potter, who lives on Piney Hill, said that at times when traffic is heavy, he will sometimes take a right on York and turn around rather than go across the busy state highway.
Potter, a stay-at-home father, said York Road carries a high volume of UPS trucks spreading out from the company's distribution center in Hunt Valley.
"I see 50 UPS trucks a day on that road," he said. Potter said he hadn't noticed unsafe driving by company drivers.
Cindy Kobbe, president of the Hereford Middle School PTA and a leader of the effort to install the signal a year ago, said that in light of the fatal accident she plans to ask state highway officials to take a look at the intersection with an eye toward lengthening the period that it operates as a conventional stoplight.
Buck said the highway agency conducted a study of traffic volume on Corbett Road in 2007 and found that it was not sufficient to warrant a full-time stoplight at York except at peak school hours. Despite the challenges of turning there, he said the intersection did not have a bad crash record, averaging three a year over a five-year period. Until Monday's crash, none was fatal, he said.
