Beltway

Eastbound traffic on Interstate 695 near the Route 2 south exit was backed up for almost two hours yesterday afternoon when a Pasadena man lost control of his commercial truck and it overturned, state police said.Trooper John Evans of the Glen Burnie barracks said traffic was backed up from about 1: 20 p.m. to 2: 45 p.m. on the interstate's eastbound lanes.The truck's driver, Thomas Swigert of the 7700 block of Woodlawn Ave., was in fair condition at Maryland Shock Trauma Center yesterday.

The world is a different place when you look at it through the squinty eyes of a harried rush-hour commuter.Basically, it's a kind of blurry place.This, we humbly postulate, is a major reason why the region's highways have suffered annoying traffic backups in recent weeks.Blame it on the sun. With autumnal sunrises coming just before the peak of morning rush hour and sunsets coming just after the peak of the evening rush hour, these are the times that try men's -- and women's -- optic nerves.

An off-duty Baltimore police officer who witnesses say pulled a motorist out of his car at gunpoint during a rush-hour argument on the Beltway last week has been charged with assault, false imprisonment, reckless endangerment and a handgun violation.Officer Tarodd Shawndre Jacobs, 24, a city police officer for two years and assigned to Southwestern District, was charged in Baltimore County District Court after Andrew J. Paladino, a Towson accountant, filed a criminal complaint late Friday with a county District Court commissioner.

The State Highway Administration will spend $6.8 million to design an improved interchange at the Beltway and Charles Street -- a move it says will add traffic capacity and create a more attractive gateway to Lutherville. The project will include replacement of the 51-year-old Charles Street Bridge with a wider span that will accommodate the addition of lanes to the Beltway, according to the agency. The state also announced it will spend $4.3 million to continue widening the west side of the Beltway by adding a fourth outer-loop lane between Ingleside Avenue and Frederick Road.

It's the end of the road for Beltway Gourmet. WBAL radio is dropping the weekly restaurant feature after 21 years. Doug Roberts, a local actor and voice-over artist who first cooked up the segment and continued doing it all these years as a station freelancer, said it was a great gig while it lasted. "I don't know of a freelance job ever being 21 years long," Roberts said. Or anything in radio lasting that long, for that matter. Amid a tough economy, WBAL honchos decided that Beltway Gourmet had to go. The Thursday morning feature will stop at the end of the month.

The man who police say was behind the wheel in a fatal hit-and-run crash on the Baltimore Beltway early Saturday was named by state police yesterday. Jeffrey A. Ziegler, 28, of the 8400 block of Loch Raven Blvd. in Towson was the driver and owner of the 1982 BMW 320i that struck and killed 42-year-old William M. Ruffin, according to the Maryland State Police. The crash is still under investigation, police said. Ruffin -- who was called Michael by his family -- was working on a construction site near the Beltway's York Road exit when Ziegler's car smashed through a barrier and struck him about 5:30 a.m., police said.

State police identified yesterday a man who died Monday when his car was struck from behind on the Baltimore Beltway as Barney Golden Ware, 69, of Bluffton, S.C. Trooper Edward Johnson of the Golden Ring Barracks reported that Ware was driving a 1993 Dodge Dynasty east on the Beltway and was in the slow lane about 6:20 a.m. when, for an unknown reason, his car stopped. Ware's car was hit from behind by a 2001 Dodge Ram pickup truck, Johnson said. The impact pushed the Dynasty into the guardrail on the inner loop's shoulder.

Happy Birthday, Beltway. You started as a detour. You evolved into Main Street.Without so much as a fanfare, the Baltimore Beltway turned 30 years old last week. No cake, candles, balloons or mid-life crisis for this 52-mile ring of concrete, steel and asphalt -- just the usual thankless workday, getting hundreds of thousands of cars and trucks from one point to another.The circular highway was initially conceived as an ideal way for East Coast interstate traffic to bypass the busy streets of Baltimore, particularly if the city became ground-zero in a nuclear attack -- a serious consideration when Congress adopted its national interstate and defense highway program in the mid-1950s.

A 10-vehicle collision on the inner loop of the Beltway near Pikesville sent six people to hospitals last night and tied up traffic for more than an hour, state police at the Golden Ring barracks said. Police said the vehicles collided about 9 p.m. near the Stevenson Road exit ramp. At least one of the autos caught fire. Three people were taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center. St. Joseph Medical Center and Greater Baltimore Medical Center treated the other three people. The names of the injured and their conditions were not available.

A St. Mary's County man was killed Saturday night after he lost control of his motorcycle and crashed while attempting to pass another vehicle on the inner loop of the Baltimore Beltway in Rosedale, said state police at the Golden Ring barracks. Jeffrey Jones, 33, of California was driving a 2007 Suzuki motorcycle about 8 p.m. and was attempting to pass a Ford Taurus under the Interstate 95 overpass near Philadelphia Road when the motorcycle struck the car's driver's side mirror, police said.