Accident

OAKLAND, Calif. -- A fiery pre-dawn tanker truck accident caused the collapse of a heavily trafficked freeway overpass near downtown yesterday, sending hundreds of feet of concrete crashing onto a highway below and hobbling a vital Bay Area interchange. The driver of the truck, which was carrying 8,600 gallons of gasoline, was hospitalized with second-degree burns. No other injuries were reported from the accident, which occurred at 3:42 a.m. But even as the fire smoldered, transit officials said the accident could complicate the lives of commuters for months.

Two people were killed and four others injured in a two-car accident in the Glen Arm section of Baltimore County last night, police reported.Police said emergency crews responding to the accident in the 11000 block of Glen Arm Road shortly before 9 p.m. found one person dead at the scene.A second person was later pronounced dead at St. Joseph Medical Center.Four people, including an infant, were transported to other area hospitals, police said.The cause of the accident was being investigated last night, but police said it involved two cars and forced them to close the road between Notchcliff Road and Long Green Pike for several hours.

RAYMOND CHARLES HANEY -- if you kill people, you always get three names -- killed five people with his car.He was driving recklessly, the judge concluded.Witnesses said he was speeding and lane-jumping, like a lot of us sometimes do. Like I sometimes do.What happened next is open to debate. In most accidents, it tends to be. I remember once that my mother got nailed from behind and she ran out of the car, screaming at the offenders: "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I hope no one is hurt."The scene of an accident is something like the fog of war. And witnesses are rarely reliable.

Young Melvin Bettis was responsible for his own death when he was hit by a speeding police car while trying to cross Reisterstown Road near his home on April 27, according to a Baltimore Police Department investigation.Contributing to the accident, police said, was the officer's "failure to exercise due care and caution."The family of the boy, who lived in the 2800 block of Waldorf Ave., would not talk about the report yesterday. Relatives said they were too upset by it.A report of the accident -- in which Officer Robert L. Velte Jr. struck the 7-year-old at a speed of 52 mph to 56 mph while responding to a burglary call -- said the "primary cause" of the accident was "pedestrian error."

Five people were treated at Calvert Memorial Hospital for minor injuries yesterday after a 10-car collision on Route 4 and Talbott Road in Lothian, county police said.There were no serious injuries in the 7 a.m. accident.Police did not release the names of anyone involved in the accident, which began when a motorist northbound on Route 4 was hit from behind when she stopped for traffic ahead of her.That collision caused a chain reaction, as nine other vehicles rear-ended the vehicles in front of them.

There's no substitute for experience, but sometimes you don't want what it has to offer.Not long ago Randy was working on a friend's roof. There was an accident -- not a fancy accident, just a basic, run-of-the-mill accident that can happen on a construction job: The guy he was working with fell off the roof. The house was one story and not that high. You wouldn't think a fall would be catastrophic. But it doesn't take much of a fall to cause problems.Last year Randy was in a basement late one evening trying to put the finishing touches on a kitchen renovation.

A chilly mix of snow, sleet and rain slowed the return home yesterday for Thanksgiving holiday travelers, but did not add to Maryland's highway death toll, authorities reported.North of Maryland, travelers did not fare nearly so well, as heavy snow snarled traffic along major highways in New York and Pennsylvania.At Baltimore-Washington International Airport, officials reported a clogged terminal and parking lots, but no major delays.Accidents on Maryland roads over the holiday period through Saturday claimed the lives of at least four people.

The parents of a 14-year-old Highland girl, who was killed nearly two years ago when a car driven by an underage boy crashed, have filed a $12.5 million civil lawsuit against the boy's parents, his estate and insurance company.The driver of the car and another teen-age girl were also killed in the accident, which occurred shortly after midnight on Nov. 16, 1992.Michael and Gloria Hall, whose daughter Angela Marie Hall died in the accident, filed the suit in Howard County Circuit Court on July 14 against Bert and Carole Levy, their 15-year-old son's estate and the State Farm Insurance Co.The Hall youth was killed when a car driven by Daniel Ross Levy veered off the road and struck a brick column mailbox, a utility pole and a tree on Route 108. Carrie Rebecca Simmons, 15, was also in the car and was killed.

An 18-year-old Glen Burnie man was sentenced yesterday in Anne Arundel Circuit Court to 18 months in jail for a drunken-driving accident that killed two people in Linthicum last December.Oscar Molina, who lived in the 1600 block of Pleasantville Road, was sentenced by Judge Raymond G. Thieme Jr. He pleaded guilty Aug. 18 to two counts of homicide by motor vehicle while intoxicated.According to court records, he was driving a 1985 Ford van south on Baltimore-Annapolis Boulevard on Dec. 18 when he crossed the center line near Camp Meade Road and collided with an oncoming Geo Storm.

The family of an Ellicott City man who died after being struck by a car in December has filed a $1.5 million wrongful death lawsuit against the driver of the vehicle.Angela Hartman and her daughter, Stephanie Hartman, both of Waldorf, claim the driver was negligent in the Dec. 28 accident, according to a lawsuit filed Monday in Howard Circuit Court.The driver, Robert Joseph Stangle, 23, of the 8500 block of Autumn Harvest in Ellicott City, is named in the lawsuit as the defendant.Mr. Stangle could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Baltimore police arrested a Sykesville man Saturday in the hit-and-run death of a Johns Hopkins University student eight days ago. Thomas Meighan, 39, of Sykesville was picked up between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m., said Detective Nicole Monroe, a police spokeswoman. The charges were not released. After police sought the owner of a pickup truck involved in the accident, Meighan turned himself in on Tuesday and was released as detectives continued to investigate the death of Miriam Frankl, 20, who was hit Oct. 16 in the 3500 block of St. Paul St. at University Parkway.

Standing before a judge and facing 60 days in jail, Baltimore County Councilman Stephen G. Samuel Moxley admitted publicly for the first time Wednesday that he is an alcoholic and needs help. Moxley was accused of being drunk shortly before midnight July 23 when he caused a four-car pileup in West Baltimore that injured 44-year-old Justine Matthews. A police officer described him as "stumbling," "swaying" and smelling of alcohol when he emerged from his badly damaged Toyota Highlander.

A 24-year-old Columbia man with a history of reckless driving and drug convictions was sentenced to five years in prison Monday for his part in a fatal accident last November that killed his best friend. Alexander Camorali of the 5400 block of Half Flight Garth pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide while under the influence of alcohol after initially being charged with vehicular manslaughter. After spending part of the night at a Baltimore go-go bar, Camorali was driving on Harpers Farm Road when his truck went out of control, smashed into a tree and knocked down a street light.

Three people died in two car accidents that occurred about the same time yesterday in Baltimore County, authorities said. The first accident occurred on Interstate 695 near the Cove Road exit when a 1992 Lexus traveling north on the highway went out of control, crossed the median and struck a southbound Toyota, state police said. The driver of the Lexus, the car's only occupant, died on impact, police said. A passenger in the rear seat of the Toyota, one of that car's three occupants, died after being taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center, police said.

Charlie Lusco, you are not alone. And boy, oh boy, is that really depressing. Several incensed readers wrote of their own alarming stories about bad drivers who don't play by the insurance rules and bad insurers who let them get away with it, after I shared Lusco's infuriating ordeal in this column last week. To recap, Lusco and his wife were rear-ended by an 18-year- old driver in December. Lusco immediately reported the accident to his insurance company, Geico, but the young driver did not inform his own insurer.

OAKLAND, Calif. -- A fiery pre-dawn tanker truck accident caused the collapse of a heavily trafficked freeway overpass near downtown yesterday, sending hundreds of feet of concrete crashing onto a highway below and hobbling a vital Bay Area interchange. The driver of the truck, which was carrying 8,600 gallons of gasoline, was hospitalized with second-degree burns. No other injuries were reported from the accident, which occurred at 3:42 a.m. But even as the fire smoldered, transit officials said the accident could complicate the lives of commuters for months.

A Mount Hebron High School senior jumped from a moving car on Route 99 shortly after 9 p.m. Thursday night, ran across the road and was struck by a sport utility vehicle driven by a fellow senior, according to Howard County police. Jamila Haley Palmer, 18, was flown to Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore and later released. An e-mail sent to Mount Hebron parents Friday said that Palmer suffered minor scratches on her head and back and is home resting. The driver of a 2003 Toyota Highlander, Ashley Danielle Lohmeyer of Ellicott City, suffered no injuries.

The Tennessee trucker who barreled into cars at the Fort McHenry Tunnel tollbooth, killing three people last spring, has been charged with three counts of vehicular manslaughter, the Baltimore state's attorney's office said yesterday. A grand jury returned an indictment Thursday charging John William Castro, 53, of Clarksville, Tenn., with causing the May 11 accident that killed a Virginia couple and a Harford County man, authorities said. Castro was fatigued, speeding and driving his 18-wheel tractor-trailer without his glasses, according to a Maryland Transportation Authority Police investigative report.

The Thanksgiving holiday travel nightmare seemed to begin in earnest last night when a multiple-vehicle accident on northbound Interstate 95 at Mountain Road in Harford County triggered 11 other collisions and a 13-mile backup that stretched from Baltimore to Joppa. Five vehicles were involved in the initial crash, which occurred about 6 p.m., said state police Cpl. Britt Moore. The cause of the accident, which resulted in minor injuries, was under investigation. Eleven additional collisions were reported in the northbound lanes within the two hours after the initial pileup, Moore said, and additional minor injuries were reported.

A single chunk of metal with a number stamped into it. A car door dented in the shape of a tractor-trailer's massive tire. A few ounces of human blood. These fragments survived the 2,000-degree gasoline fire after Tuesday's deadly tanker accident on Interstate 95. To the untrained eye, the relics of four people's deaths seem tragically sparse and meaningless. But to accident experts, they unlock a treasure chest of other information: driver's licenses and medical charts, cargo manifests and repair records, logbooks and even credit-card receipts.