Car Crashed

An Arnold man was killed Tuesday afternoon when his car crashed into a tree in the 1800 block of Ritchie Highway, county police said.Arthur Donald Ford Jr., 30, was pronounced dead at the Anne Arundel Medical Center after the 3 p.m. crash.He was southbound in his 1989 Lincoln when his car veered off the road, struck a guard rail and crashed head-on into the tree, police said.Mr. Ford was not wearing a seat belt. Police are investigating the accident.

Five people were taken to the hospital after they were injured in a crash on Interstate 95 on Sunday night involving multiple cars, Baltimore County Fire Department officials said. The crash happened about 9 p.m. on southbound I-95 near the exit for I-195, officials said. One person was critically injured, two people were seriously injured and two people had minor injuries, the fire department said. The University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center was at capacity, fire officials said, so patients were taken elsewhere.

Two teen-age girls were killed and two others were critically injured yesterday when their car crashed into a concrete median, spun across the road and crashed into a tree. The force of the impact split the car in half.The driver, Elizabeth Clark, 16, had obtained her provisional driver's license just three weeks ago, Montgomery County police said. It required her to be off the road at midnight, an hour before the 1 a.m. accident.Miss Clark and her front-seat passenger, Katherine Zirkle, 16, were declared dead at the scene, police said.

Four young men, including a Kent Island firefighter, were killed in a head-on car crash on Kent Island Wednesday afternoon, the Queen Anne's County sheriff's office said. Firefighter medics who rushed to the scene recognized the fireman who was killed, officials said. Eli Dabich, 73, a chemistry professor at the Naval Academy, was injured and flown to the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where a spokeswoman said he was in serious condition as of Thursday afternoon. All of the teenagers killed were from Kent Island.

Two men arrested by federal agents after their fleeing vehicle crashed into a car at a Baltimore intersection Wednesday were charged yesterday with conspiring to distribute heroin. Court documents allege that one of the suspects is the leader of a city drug ring and the other is his supplier from New York. After the crash, agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said, they confiscated six kilograms of heroin and duffel bags containing $400,000. DEA agents wrote in paperwork filed yesterday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore that they have been targeting for several months members of a drug distribution organization allegedly run by Payton Green.

State Police today were investigating the traffic death of a 65-year-old Cecil County man whose car crashed into a tree.Layton Thompson Boulden Jr., of the 500 block of Delaware Ave. in Elkton, was driving a 1974 Chevrolet Caprice east on Irishtown Road near North East about noon yesterday.He lost control of the vehicle for no apparent reason and crashed into a tree, police said.Boulden, the only occupant of the car, was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.State Police at Pikesville said Boulden's death brought to 524 the number of people killed on Maryland roadways so far this year, compared with 584 at the same time last year.

An autopsy was to be performed today on an Anne Arundel County woman who died after her car crashed into a guardrail on Interstate 695 near Catonsville yesterday afternoon, state police said. Lorraine Mary Mariano, 52, of the 400 block of Susan Court in Linthicum was driving a 2004 Nissan Sentra on the inner loop near Wilkens Avenue about 1:10 p.m. when she suddenly slumped over the steering wheel, witnesses told police. Mariano was the sole occupant of the car. The car went onto the shoulder, up a grassy embankment, back down the embankment and struck a barrier wall before crashing head-on into a partially buried guardrail, police said.

Havre de Grace police said yesterday that criminal and traffic charges were pending against a Harford County man whose car crashed into a pumping station during a police chase Saturday, killing a teen-age passenger.A second passenger, who witnesses said was injured and bleeding, escaped and was being sought, said Sgt. Michael White.White said the incident began about 10: 50 p.m. when someone in a 1995 Mitsubishi Galant fired several gunshots at a man outside the Sommerset Manor apartments in the 100 block of Stansbury Court.

Four people died in car accidents yesterday and Sunday:Baltimore CountyCounty police said a Kingsville accident occurred at 5:10 p.m. when the driver, 29, who was not identified until his relatives could be notified, tried to change lanes in the 12600 block of Belair Road.The car swerved off the right side of the road and struck a telephone pole. The driver was pronounced dead shortly after arrival at Fallston General Hospital.Police said high speed was a contributing factor to the accident.

Baltimore County police investigators have cleared the officers involved in a high-speed car chase March 16 that began in Woodlawn and ended with the death of a teen-age passenger when the fleeing car crashed several miles inside the city.Sgt. Stephen R. Doarnberger said the department's investigation began right after the death of Raymond C. Wilson, 16, of the 3200 block of Gulfport Drive.The youth was thrown from the 1989 Ford Escort when it struck a curb in the 5000 block of Edmondson Ave., became airborne and struck several trees -- splitting in half.

Four people were injured in a three-vehicle crash Saturday afternoon at the intersection of Route 543 and Walters Mill Road in Street. Maryland State Police troopers said the accident happened shortly after 1 p.m., when Coleman Lewis Hitchcock, 82, failed to stop at the stop sign on Walters Mill Road as he neared Route 543. His car, a Mitsubishi, was hit by a Mazda driven by Krystle Genuendt, 24, of Pennsylvania, according to Sgt. Gary Chatfield...

Three people died early Sunday in an Odenton car crash. According to Anne Arundel County Police, officers were called to Piney Orchard Parkway and Riverscape Road at about 12:30 a.m. where a 2005 Subaru had crashed into a tree. The driver, David Michael D'Augustine of Odenton, 22, was dead at the scene, police said, as well as two passengers in the car, Samuel Carl Schindler of Odenton, 22, and Katherine Marie Warrington of Odenton, also 22. A third passenger, identified by police as Michael Lee Phillips of Gambrills, 23, was taken by Medevac to Maryland Shock Trauma in critical condition.

One person was killed and another seriously injured in a car crash Tuesday evening in Baltimore County, police said. County police spokesman Cpl. John Wachter said the crash occurred about 8:20 p.m. near the intersection of Reisterstown Road and Caraway Road in Reisterstown. Police did not immediately have information on the victims. The injured person was taken to Sinai Hospital in Baltimore. Wachter said a Chevy Traverse traveling west on Reisterstown Road crossed into the eastbound lanes and struck a Toyota Corolla, killing the Toyota's driver instantly.

A multi-vehicle collision on Solomons Island Road in Harwood left one driver with life-threatening injuries and two other drivers and a passenger with a range of serious and minor injuries around 4 p.m. Friday, Anne Arundel County Police said. Timothy Alan Hartman of Mechanicsville, Md., was taken to University of Maryland Shock Trauma center with life-threatening injuries after the Ford pickup truck that he was driving southbound on Solomons Island Road near Harwood Road struck a minivan, police said.

Baltimore County police on Thursday identified the victim of a Wednesday evening fatal car crash in Rosedale as Sandra Vogel, 49, of Dickerson. Police said Vogel was driving the wrong way in the 8100 block of eastbound Philadelphia Avenue about 6:15 p.m. when her car struck another head-on. The driver of the second car was taken the hospital with serious injuries. Two other cars were involved in the accident, though those drivers were not injured. Police were investigating the crash.

A crash involving four vehicles on the outer loop of Interstate 495 in Montgomery County on Monday night left eight people injured and all outer-loop lanes closed to traffic for hours, according to law enforcement officials. A duty officer with the Maryland State Police Rockville Barrack, which was the lead investigating agency, said all outer-loop lanes of the highway were closed beginning about 7:50 p.m. and remained closed as of 10 p.m. He said police did not have an estimate for when lanes would reopen.

A Westminster woman, who told rescuers she fell asleep at the wheel just before her car crashed into a tree near Melrose yesterday, died on the way to Carroll County General Hospital, police said.Heidi Byers, 31, was trapped in her Chevrolet Cavalier for more than 30 minutes and remained conscious for a short time while rescue workers from the Manchester and Lineboro fire companies labored to remove her from the wreckage.Manchester Fire Chief Steve Miller said, "We had to cut the roof off and then do a -- roll [pull the dashboard away with a hook]

ISSUE: This month, Del. Terry R. Gilleland Jr. was acquitted of drunken driving and four related charges even though state police said that a Breathalyzer test measured his blood-alcohol level at 0.17 percent; Gilleland had admitted to drinking six beers. A primary reason: At trial, the Anne Arundel County state's attorney's office couldn't produce the two county police officers who reportedly found Gilleland, a Glen Burnie Republican, wandering into traffic in the early-morning hours of July 13 after his car crashed.

A 32-year-old Owings Mills woman was killed in a three-car collision on Route 140 in Finksburg on Tuesday afternoon, according to Maryland State Police. Ruchita Pandya was pronounced dead on the scene near the border of Baltimore and Carroll counties, police said. Police and emergency responders were called to the scene about 5:15 p.m., police said. An initial investigation showed a 2001 Toyota Tundra driven by William Mark Lehr, of Westminster, was traveling west when it crossed the center line and struck a 2007 Toyota Corolla being driven east by Pandya, police said.

A 26-year-old Timonium man died Friday in a traffic accident at a Towson intersection. Erik Pachino of the unit block of Tudor Court struck the curb, a traffic sign and a signal pole at about 2 a.m. He had been traveling west on Fairmount Avenue, when he lost control of his 2006 Jeep Wrangler while turning north onto York Road. Investigators believe speed was a factor in the crash. Pachino was flown to Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where he died at 8:30 a.m. Mary.gail.hare@baltsun.com Text NEWS to 70701 to get Baltimore Sun local news text alerts