Dump Truck

City enters negotiating pact for new Waxter Center Formalizing a step they took in July, city officials announced yesterday that they were entering an exclusive negotiating agreement with a Baltimore development team to redevelop an aging Mount Vernon senior center. Baltimore Development Corp. and the Baltimore City Commission on Aging and Retirement Education are pursuing a contract with MtV2 Development, led by Howard Chambers, to build a new Waxter Center. The $62 million deal involves a land swap in which Chambers would receive the Waxter Center property at 1000 Cathedral St., on which he wants to build a mixed-use residential and retail tower.

A state prison inmate who was hit by a truck and killed Thursday while working along the Capital Beltway was identified yesterday as Rodney Jennings, 28, who had been serving a two-year sentence for possession of drugs with intent to distribute. Maj. Priscilla Doggett, a spokeswoman for the Division of Correction, said the prison system is suspending road work crews from the Herman L. Toulson Boot Camp in Jessup until better safety standards can be established. The incident was the second fatality involving a Division of Correction highway crew member in the past three months.

Eleven North Carroll High School students and three motorists suffered minor injuries in the first of two accidents involving county school buses in yesterday's early morning mist and fog, state police said.Twenty-four William Winchester Elementary pupils, a bus driver and a motorist were uninjured in the second incident when, according to state police, the bus driver backed into a car that had stopped behind the bus on Old Manchester Road in Westminster at 9: 15 a.m.Bus driver Cleo D. Walters, 70, of New Windsor was charged with unsafe backing, state police said.

The operator of a dump truck was killed yesterday when the loading bed collapsed on him as he tried to free the tarpaulin covering that became entangled in the bed's gears, police said.Eugene Black, 41, of the 3600 block of Brehms Lane in Northeast Baltimore was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident in the 5400 block of Belair Road, said Detective Cliff Macer.Macer said Black, a driver for Pulaski Roofers in Perry Hall, and a co-worker were working in the rear of the 5400 block of Belair Road about 4: 30 p.m. when the tarpaulin became entangled in the loading bed's control gears, preventing the loading bed from moving up or down.

A Maryland state trooper and a truck driver were injured yesterday afternoon when the trooper's stopped patrol car was hit from behind by a dump truck on Interstate 695 south of Liberty Road, shutting down a stretch of the Beltway.Trooper Michael R. Tagliaferri, who is assigned to the Golden Ring barracks, received neck and back injuries and was treated at and released from Maryland Shock Trauma Center.The truck driver, identified by police as Nathen Michael Graybill, 35, of the 22200 block of Rock Forge Road in Hagerstown, also was taken to Shock Trauma and was treated and released.

A Maryland state trooper and a truck driver were injured yesterday afternoon when the trooper's stopped patrol car was hit from behind by a dump truck on Interstate 695 south of Liberty Road, shutting down a stretch of the Beltway.Trooper Michael R. Tagliaferri, who is assigned to the Golden Ring barracks, received neck and back injuries and was treated at and released from Maryland Shock Trauma Center.The truck driver, identified by police as Nathen Michael Graybill, 35, of the 22200 block of Rock Forge Road in Hagerstown, also was taken to Shock Trauma and was treated and released.

Three women were killed in two separate car accidents yesterday, State Police reported.In the first accident, two Calvert County women were fatally injured when their Chevrolet Cavalier swerved into the path of an oncoming dump truck about 10 a.m. on Route 765 in Prince Frederick, according to police.The deceased were identified as Elizabeth L. Frazer, 48, of Chesapeake Beach, and Barbara Gaetano, also 48, of Huntingtown.The driver of the dump truck, DeSale Dade, was treated for minor injuries and released from Calvert Memorial Hospital, police said.

A West Friendship woman was killed yesterday morning after she drove through a red light at a western Howard County intersection and was struck by a dump truck, police said.About 6: 15 a.m., Gwendolyn Pinnix, 37, of the 2000 block of Wynfield Road, was driving her Jeep Wrangler west on Route 144 when she ran the red light at Route 32, police said.Pinnix was hit by the dump truck traveling north on Route 32, police said.Pinnix was flown to Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where she was pronounced dead.

A Laurel man was killed yesterday after he pulled his car onto Whiskey Bottom Road and into the path of a 44,000-pound Mack garbage truck, county police said.Carlet A. Ako, 39, of the 400 block of Kokomo Court was killed instantly.Police said Ako was headed north on Brock Bridge Road shortly before 10 a.m. when he either failed to stop at a stop sign at Whiskey Bottom Road or had just pulled into the intersection after stopping.Ronald Luther Weitkamp Jr., 26, a driver for York Waste Disposal, was going east on Whiskey Bottom Road.

The son of Glen Burnie's "Bernadette the MVA Lady," who was killed when a county dump truck ran over her in 1995, is suing Anne Arundel County and the truck driver for $2 million.Edna Belle Hutchinson, 53, was a familiar face at the Motor Vehicle Administration office in Glen Burnie, where she went daily to ask for cigarettes and quarters.Her death on May 30, 1995, as she was crossing a gas station parking lot upset MVA employees, some of whom had pitched in to buy her clothing, food and cigarettes at Christmas.

Maryland State Police say a dump truck hit an overhead sign on Interstate 70, and the driver kept going. The most serious of three traffic infractions handed to Alvin J. Hall 3rd charges him with leaving the scene of an accident with property damage. If found guilty, the 49-year-old Glen Burnie man could spend up to a year in jail, be fined $3,000 and get 12 points on his license, enough for an on-the-spot revocation. The sign, 75 feet long, spanned three lanes and two shoulders of the eastbound portion of the highway and hung from steel posts and beams about a mile west of the Baltimore Beltway interchange.

Pasadena girl, 10, dies in trailer accident 2 A 10-year-old Anne Arundel County girl died yesterday, shortly after being run over by a trailer pulled by a dump truck operated by her father. Michael Foy of the 800 block of Swift Road in Pasadena was driving a dump truck and pulling a trailer on his property after 2 p.m. when his daughter ran between the vehicles and was run over by the trailer's front wheels, said Sgt. John Gilmer, a spokesman for the Anne Arundel County Police Department.

Not so long ago, Towson was a place that mirrored this year's Republican National Convention: tons of WASPs, miles of blonds and a door prize for spotting a minority of any sort. Obama for America headquarters came to 40 W. Chesapeake Ave. in late September. Here's what happened at the front desk: A diminutive, 82-year-old, Israeli-American grandmother came in to do whatever was asked of her and said she was worried about making phone calls as people might have trouble with her accent.

Blast, fire hit underground construction site Baltimore firefighters responded last night to an underground explosion and fire at a construction site near Maryland General Hospital. No one was injured. The underground fire broke out before 9 p.m. in the 400 block of W. Madison St. at Eutaw Street, said Chief Kevin Cartwright, a spokesman for the Fire Department. Crews from Baltimore Gas and Electric had completed repairs to a 110,000-volt feeder line on the site of a future switching station when they were attempting to restore electricity.

City enters negotiating pact for new Waxter Center Formalizing a step they took in July, city officials announced yesterday that they were entering an exclusive negotiating agreement with a Baltimore development team to redevelop an aging Mount Vernon senior center. Baltimore Development Corp. and the Baltimore City Commission on Aging and Retirement Education are pursuing a contract with MtV2 Development, led by Howard Chambers, to build a new Waxter Center. The $62 million deal involves a land swap in which Chambers would receive the Waxter Center property at 1000 Cathedral St., on which he wants to build a mixed-use residential and retail tower.

After fixing up his new Bethany Beach house this summer, David Destino was eager to relax with his family there over the Labor Day weekend. But first the Ellicott City man had to navigate one of the Eastern Shore's more treacherous routes, a rural road that authorities say is poorly equipped to handle heavy holiday traffic. There on eastbound Route 404, a partially divided two-lane highway, a dump truck rear-ended the 2003 Ford Explorer that Destino was driving Friday afternoon, Maryland State Police said.

A state prison inmate who was hit by a truck and killed Thursday while working along the Capital Beltway was identified yesterday as Rodney Jennings, 28, who had been serving a two-year sentence for possession of drugs with intent to distribute. Maj. Priscilla Doggett, a spokeswoman for the Division of Correction, said the prison system is suspending road work crews from the Herman L. Toulson Boot Camp in Jessup until better safety standards can be established. The incident was the second fatality involving a Division of Correction highway crew member in the past three months.

Howard County : Simpsonville Several vehicles involved in crash A dump truck carrying asphalt erupted in flames during a multiple-vehicle accident yesterday afternoon that closed westbound Route 32 in the Howard County community of Simpsonville during rush hour and caused backups on nearby U.S. 29. One injured person was taken by ambulance to Maryland Shock Trauma Center; three people with minor injuries were taken to Howard County General Hospital, fire...

Woman helped issue fake driver's licenses A car dealership employee admitted in court papers yesterday that she helped secure 162 driver's licenses for applicants who should not have been able to obtain them, federal prosecutors announced. Ana Maria Lorena Creque, 45, of Adelphi pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt to conspiracy to produce and transfer unlawfully produced Maryland driver's licenses. According to the plea agreement presented in court, Creque worked for Y2K Auto Sales Inc. in Beltsville, where she prepared paperwork for car titles and tags.

A 17-year-old Westminster teenager died when his sport utility vehicle collided with a dump truck and both trucks overturned at Route 31 and Tahoma Farm Road in Westminster yesterday morning, state police said. Charles P. Diegel of the first block of Wentworth Court died at the scene about 7:15 a.m. Diegel's black Mercury Mountaineer failed to yield the right of way to the dump truck, which was traveling east on Route 31, according to the state police preliminary investigation. At the intersection, Diegel had been stopped behind a school bus before making a right turn and striking the dump truck, police said.