I 97

A Howard County man was killed Saturday when he was struck by a car after he stopped to examine flat tires on his vehicle on the shoulder of Interstate 97 near Millersville, state police said.Police said Eric Van Sutton, 25, of the 6200 block of Turnabout Lane, Columbia, had stopped on the shoulder of southbound I-97 near Benfield Boulevard about 3 a.m. to examine three flat tires on his car. They said he stepped into the road to flag down an oncoming 1998 Ford Taurus and was hit.Sutton suffered multiple injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

An Annapolis man died in a traffic accident on Route 50 yesterday morning, minutes after sideswiping two cars on the road, police said.Craig V. Downs, 27, of the 1400 block of Regent St. was partially thrown from his 1990 Mazda 929 and hit his head on the pavement when the car he was driving overturned on the westbound ramp to Interstate 97. He was not wearing a seat belt and was pronounced dead at the scene.A passenger, Antoin E. Green, 23, of 1800 block of Robert Small Road, Annapolis, was in stable condition last night at Maryland Shock Trauma Center.

A Severn man died early yesterday when his van veered across the median of Interstate 97 in Crownsville and overturned in the northbound lanes.Police said Warren M. Sommerville, 55, of the 600 block of Queenstown Road was not wearing a seat belt and was ejected from the 1975 Chevrolet van in which he was the only occupant.He was southbound on the interstate near John Hanson Highway shortly before 3: 30 a.m.The accident prompted the closing of the northbound lanes for more than an hour, police said.

HAD THE INTERSTATE 97 median strip near Quarterfield Road included a metal guardrail or concrete Jersey barrier, 57-year-old Worthington S. Keville might not have died on Tuesday.On most of the newly completed portions of I-97, between Baltimore and Annapolis, northbound and southbound drivers are separated by metal guardrails or concrete barriers.On the stretch near Quarterfield, though, nothing but a grassy median separates motorists traveling in opposite directions.To be sure, Mr. Keville, a Crofton man who had seven children and eight grandchildren, was not the victim of poor highway engineering.

SOMETHING IS WRONG on Interstate 97, which links Baltimore to Annapolis. The past three months have seen four fatal accidents involving out-of-control southbound vehicles crossing the median strip. When these accidents occur so close in time and vicinity, something other than coincidence is at work.Prior to the two most recent accidents, state officials reviewed the highway and concluded that its design met accepted standards, according to state Transportation Secretary David L. Winstead and Col. David B. Mitchell, superintendent of the Maryland State Police.

After years of construction and congestion, the State Highway Administration will open a third northbound lane on Interstate 97 in Anne Arundel County tomorrow evening.The new lane will begin at Route 174, known as Quarterfield Road, and extend north of Route 176, known as Dorsey Road, SHA officials said. The project is part of construction to improve I-97 north to the Baltimore Beltway."For people commuting from Annapolis and down in that area up to Baltimore, obviously there were some delays in the past," said David Buck, an SHA spokesman.

Lower speed limit to save lives on I-97Your June 27 editorial, ''Another death on I-97,'' pointed out the need for barriers and better speed enforcement on that highway. However, the biggest problem is the too-high speed limit, which is 65 mph and not 60 mph as stated in the editorial.This is just too fast for a congested road, and I-97 is frequently congested.Gov. Parris Glendening and others should admit that a mistake was made in raising the speed limit all the way from 55 mph to 65 mph and they should reduce it to 60 mph, at most.

WITHIN THE PAST two weeks, two deaths on Interstate 97 in Anne Arundel County might have been averted if the median strip had metal guardrails or Jersey barriers. The fatalities occurred when speeding, out-of-control cars crossed the grassy median and hit oncoming traffic.State highway officials, who are aware of the problem, need to act as quickly as possible to prevent another tragedy.In the most recent accident, an Annapolis motorist, headed south during Wednesday evening's rush hour, lost control of her car, crossed the median and ran head-on into a tractor-trailer.

County police arrested a Tracys Landing 15-year-old yesterday and charged him with making two false bomb threats to his school.The youth was being held at the Waxter Children's Center in Laurel, police said.Southern High School in Harwood was evacuated and searched Friday and Monday after written bomb threats were found at the school. Police found nothing in the way of an explosive device either day.When police questioned a boy who said he had found Monday's note, he gave conflicting accounts of how he found it, police said.

An Annapolis woman was killed yesterday when she lost control of her car on Interstate 97 in Crownsville during the evening rush hour, crossed the median and crashed head-on into a tractor-trailer, state police said.Police would not identify the woman, who was thrown partially through the windshield, until they could notify her family.An unidentified male passenger was taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore.Witnesses told police the woman was southbound in a white Mazda RX-7 shortly before 6 p.m. when the car started to fishtail.

Maryland State Police were investigating a fatal motorcycle accident that closed lanes on Interstate 97 Tuesday afternoon. No further details were released pending notification of family members. A caller reported the incident about 2:23 p.m., saying a motorcycle had slid under a truck on I-97 between Crain Highway and Quarterfield Road, said Capt. Debbie Bowen, an Anne Arundel Fire Department spokeswoman. The victim was pronounced dead at the scene, she said.

Readers of my last column agreed enthusiastically that Interstate 95 south of Washington takes the crown as the worst traffic nightmare in the Mid-Atlantic states during peak holiday travel. Quite a few of them offered the same alternate route: a pleasant jaunt through Southern Maryland via U.S. 301, crossing into Virginia on the Governor Harry W. Nice Memorial Bridge. Among the readers who recommended such a strategy were Ann Heether and Ted Lingelbach of Parkville. "We agree that I-495 and I-95 South in Northern Virginia are a Nightmare," they wrote.

State police are investigating a single-vehicle accident that sent the driver to Maryland Shock Trauma Center and caused a three-mile backup on northbound Interstate 97 near Crownsville last night. A man was seriously injured after his Jeep overturned about 7:30 p.m. near the Farm Road overpass, said State Police Cpl. Marc Price of the Annapolis Barracks. The driver was flown by helicopter to Shock Trauma; his name and condition were not available. Price said police believe the man was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the accident, which delayed many motorists heading home from the Eastern Shore.

Maryland State Police are investigating two fatal accidents along Interstate 97 within hours of one another. Investigators are trying to discover why an Easton man pulled his 2003 Dodge pickup truck onto the shoulder of Interstate 97 yesterday morning and stepped into the right travel lane about 9:30 a.m. Ryan Lee Murphy, 28, was struck by a State Highway Administration dump truck and killed. The truck driver was not charged, police said. Murphy, who carried no identification, was pronounced dead at the scene, said Tfc. Charles A. Harvey.

Some lanes on I-97 to be closed at night for work on bridge Some lanes between Route 100 and New Cut Road on Interstate 97 will be closed temporarily in both directions most nights for the next week, State Highway Administration officials said. The lane closures, from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m., will allow workers to install steel beams for a new bridge. State police will be on-site to guide motorists, administration officials said. The work is part of a $10 million project and should be completed by the fall, officials said.

The State Highway Administration has launched a $10 million interchange project on Interstate 97 near Quarterfield Road to handle traffic growth in the area -- a project that could keep some lanes closed at off-peak hours over the next two years. Workers began preparing the site in the Glen Burnie area last month and will be working for about 18 months. The project will include improvements to a bridge and to Quarterfield Road's intersection with I-97. SHA spokesman David Buck said traffic in the area is expected to increase by 45 percent over the next 20 years.

The State Highway Administration has launched a $10 million interchange project on Interstate 97 near Quarterfield Road to handle traffic growth in the area - a project that could keep some lanes closed at off-peak hours over the next two years. Workers began site preparation last month in the Glen Burnie area and will be working on the upgrades for the next 18 months. The project will include upgrades to Quarterfield Road's intersection with Interstate 97 as well as a bridge overhaul.

CROWNSVILLE -- A two-vehicle accident on Interstate 97 yesterday morning tied up traffic on the highway and Route 50 for more than an hour, state police said. At 8:17 a.m., a Jeep sideswiped a Saturn on northbound I-97 about three miles north of Route 50, police said. The driver of the Jeep was thrown from her vehicle but suffered only minor injuries, said state police Cpl. Leon Forman. She was treated at Maryland Shock Trauma Center and released. There were no other injuries. One lane of the interstate was closed for less than 10 minutes while the accident was cleared to the shoulder, Forman said.

An Annapolis man died in a traffic accident on Route 50 yesterday morning, minutes after sideswiping two cars on the road, police said.Craig V. Downs, 27, of the 1400 block of Regent St. was partially thrown from his 1990 Mazda 929 and hit his head on the pavement when the car he was driving overturned on the westbound ramp to Interstate 97. He was not wearing a seat belt and was pronounced dead at the scene.A passenger, Antoin E. Green, 23, of 1800 block of Robert Small Road, Annapolis, was in stable condition last night at Maryland Shock Trauma Center.

A Howard County man was killed Saturday when he was struck by a car after he stopped to examine flat tires on his vehicle on the shoulder of Interstate 97 near Millersville, state police said.Police said Eric Van Sutton, 25, of the 6200 block of Turnabout Lane, Columbia, had stopped on the shoulder of southbound I-97 near Benfield Boulevard about 3 a.m. to examine three flat tires on his car. They said he stepped into the road to flag down an oncoming 1998 Ford Taurus and was hit.Sutton suffered multiple injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.