Pickup

A Washington woman and a Silver Spring man were killed in separate Montgomery County traffic accidents yesterday, one an hour after midnight and the other an hour before dawn, police reported.Investigators said the first accident occurred about 1 a.m. in the 13000 block of River Road in Potomac when a man from Hollywood, Cal., crossed the center line in his 1985 Buick Century and hit a Honda CRX head-on.The driver of the Honda, identified by police as Isabel M. Duarte, 21, of the 2300 block of Tracy Place in Northwest Washington, died from head injuries, investigators said.

A woman in her 70s was badly injured when she fell out of a moving antique pickup truck in Baltimore County Sunday morning near the Pennsylvania border, police said. Details of how the woman fell out of the 1949 black Chevrolet pickup were not available, and Baltimore County police were investigating the matter but it has not been determined whether charges will be filed, Lt. Rob McCullough, a police spokesman, said. The woman was flown to the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center as a precaution, but her condition was stable and she was able to answer questions from detectives, McCullough said.

The Town of Bel Air has announced changes to its trash and recycling pickup schedules during the upcoming holiday weeks. In addition to Christmas Day, town offices will be closed on Monday, Dec. 4, Christmas Eve; Monday Dec. 31, Christmas Day; and Tuesday, Jan. 1, New Year's Day. Public Works Director Randy Robertson said at a recent staff work session that there will be no trash or recycle pickup in town on those days. The holiday trash pickup schedule is as follows: • Monday's household trash route will be collected on Wednesday; • Tuesday's household trash route will be collected on Thursday; • Thursday's recycle route will be collected on Friday; and • Friday's recycle route will be collected on Saturday.

An allegedly intoxicated man allegedly drove into two homes on East MacPhail Road in Bel Air Wednesday night, hit a propane gas line that started a fire at one house and then backed his pickup truck into the other and knocked part of it off of its foundation, according to police. The driver, later identified as Michael Lee Smith, 54, of the 1000 block of Cedar Lane in Bel Air, then allegedly left the scene and was arrested a short time later near his home. At about 9:15 p.m. Wednesday, Harford County Sheriff's deputies were sent to the 1000 block of East MacPhail Road, where a vehicle, later identified as a 2001 blue Chevy Silverado, drove off the road and hit a home and propane gas line, starting a fire, according to a press release from the Harford County Sheriff's Office.

The driver of a pickup truck that flipped last year, killing a River Hill high school football player, was indicted Thursday by a Howard County grand jury. David Daniel Erdmann, 22, of the 4300 block of Heritage Hills Lane in Ellicott City, was charged in a multicount indictment. Among the charges were driving under the influence of alcohol, vehicular homicide and manslaughter. Steven Dankos, 17, of Clarksville was riding in the truck bed and died at the scene. Erdmann's brother Thomas, one of Dankos' close friends and a teammate on the River Hill football team, was hurt in the crash.

When he first came to Baltimore six years ago, Towson University basketball coach Pat Kennedy figured there was a college summer league for his players to join similar to those in Philadelphia, New York and Washington. Kennedy was shocked to learn that there was nothing that closely resembled the Baker, Rucker or Kenner leagues that had become institutions in their respective cities. Kennedy made inquiries about starting one but never got far. "Summer leagues were pretty consistent, and, especially in this hotbed of basketball, I was surprised," Kennedy said last week.

Baltimore's Department of Public Works will not be collecting trash or recycling Nov. 2, because of Election Day. Residents whose trash or recycling is normally collected on Tuesday should put trash out on Nov. 6. In addition, no bulk trash collection will be scheduled Tuesday. City officials said that the Quarantine Road Landfill, the Northwest Transfer Station and the Eastern, Western and Northwestern sanitation yards will be closed Tuesday. Parking meters and regulations in Baltimore will be in effect.

Baltimore City workers will no longer accept appointments to pick up bulk trash, Public Works officials said Friday, making the popular service an early victim of the city's budget woes. Residents can still drop off items at any of the city drop-off centers; a list of them can be found at http://www.baltimorecity.gov. But because of potential budget cuts and loss of staff beginning in the new fiscal year, which begins July 1, officials said there may not be a sufficient work force to offer the service, even through the remainder of this fiscal year.

CHICAGO -- Consider the pickup, a workhorse given little respect.Popular culture has long perpetuated images of the pickup as the favorite mode of transportation for the National Rifle Association member, civil rights opponent, survivalist, Ku Klux Klan supporter and stereotypes of the rural inhabitant. Good only for toting hay or wooden crates -- or shotguns.No longer. Some 2,000 miles eastward in Detroit -- not to mention in Japan -- auto executives, demographic researchers and marketers know better.

An Easton man was thrown from a truck Friday as it careened off a curb on the southbound lanes of Ritchie Highway near McKinsey Road and bounced into the northbound lanes, county police said.Justin Baylem Thom, 23, of Easton, who was not wearing a seat belt, was treated at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore and was released Sunday.The driver, Kevin Christopher Thomas, 19, of Centreville in Queen Anne's County, suffered minor injuries and was not hospitalized.Police said Thomas was traveling south in a 1988 Mazda pickup, weaving in and out of traffic just before 10 p.m., when he lost control and the truck caromed off a curb into the northbound lanes.

The online grocer Relay Foods started service in the Baltimore area back in December. Starting this weekend, Relay will offer pickup service for customers who have placed orders online. Previously, the only option for Baltimore customers purchasing groceries from Relay has been home delivery. The pickup locations are Baltimore Clayworks (5707 Smith Ave. in Mount Washington) and in front of Trohv (921 W. 36th St. in Hampden ). The pickups will operate from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake called Monday for "bold reforms" to fix a looming financial shortfall, including requiring more city workers to contribute to their retirement fund, charging residents for trash collection, asking firefighters to work longer hours and cutting the city workforce by 10 percent over time. In return, she said, the city could use the savings to raise employee salaries and cut property taxes by 22 percent - 50 cents per $100 of assessed value - over the next decade.

Laurel city offices will be closed Monday, Dec. 31, and Tuesday, Jan. 1, for the New Year's holiday. There will be no city trash or recycling collections Monday and Tuesday, Dec. 31 and Jan. 1. Refuse collections will be made as scheduled Dec. 27 and 28, and Jan. 3 and 4. Recycling usually collected on Mondays and Tuesdays will be collected Wednesday, Jan. 2. There will be no residential special pickups or yard debris collections during the...

Just a reminder for those keen on "green" living that Christmas trees make great mulch.  Residents of Anne Arundel , Baltimore and eastern Howard counties can simply put their trees out for curbside collection in early January with other recyclables. Or, if they prefer (or miss the pickup window), they can take the trees to various drop off locations for grinding up into mulch. Folks living in Harford and western Howard counties can drop off their trees for recycling at local landfills or other sites.  Carroll County has offered the same drop off service in prior years for residents of non-incorporated areas there - town dwellers may also have curbside pickup.  Click on the links above for information about your local jurisdiction, drop off locations, pickup dates and other details.

The Town of Bel Air has announced changes to its trash and recycling pickup schedules during the upcoming holiday weeks. In addition to Christmas Day, town offices will be closed on Monday, Dec. 4, Christmas Eve; Monday Dec. 31, Christmas Day; and Tuesday, Jan. 1, New Year's Day. Public Works Director Randy Robertson said at a recent staff work session that there will be no trash or recycle pickup in town on those days. The holiday trash pickup schedule is as follows: • Monday's household trash route will be collected on Wednesday; • Tuesday's household trash route will be collected on Thursday; • Thursday's recycle route will be collected on Friday; and • Friday's recycle route will be collected on Saturday.

It's America Recycles Day , so listen up: The secret's out about a little-known municipal service offered to Baltimore City businesses - free and practically unlimited single-stream recycling. “The key advantage to business single-stream recycling is that firms can eliminate up to 50 percent of their trash costs when they shift from costly garbage collection to free recycling,” according to Robert Murrow, Baltimore City's recycling coordinator. Though the Department of Public Works web site appears to limit free recycling to  "small businesses in residential areas," Murrow said in reality the city will pick up recyclables for free from businesses of all sizes, no matter where they are. Those firms generating enough recyclables to regularly fill a dumpster or in need of more than once-weekly collection can arrange that with the department, he said.  As a practical matter, DPW draws the line at picking up more than three times a week, he added, so any establishments needing that much service ought to hire a private processor.

A Union Bridge man hitchhiking on Bucher John Road was killed early yesterday when he apparently stepped in front of a truck, state police reported.David E. Bohn, 39, was pronounced dead at Carroll County General Hospital after he was hit by a Ford Ranger pickup truck driven by 21-year-old David Harman, also of Union Bridge, police said.The accident remained under investigation last night.Pub Date: 4/12/98

The Pickup, by Nadine Gordimer. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 224 pages. $24. One of the great pleasures of watching an old pro at work, as in Nadine Gordimer's The Pickup, is that she understands that the heart of all good fiction is surprise. Also, The Pickup gives a bracing account of cultural collision, and the healthful shock of this collision comes from Gordimer's refusal to indulge in what passes for multi-culturalism, which in this country often looks like Westerners playing a kind of dress up with the most superficial aspects of other societies.

Two people were killed on Route 75 in Frederick on Monday afternoon when a tractor trailer loaded with oranges overturned and collided with the pickup truck they were riding in, according to Maryland State Police. Three people were also injured, one of them critically. The deceased victims are identified as Hector N.C. Henriquez, 46, of Gaithersburg, Md., and Jose R. Diaz, 54, of Derwood, Md. Henriquez was the driver of a Ford F-450 truck. Diaz was a passenger in that truck and was sitting in the left rear seat.

Baltimore County Police say a FedEx delivery person was robbed in Towson along LaSalle Road. The incident occurred Oct. 31 in the 8600 block of LaSalle Road, between 7 p.m. and 7:38 p.m. According to the report, the FedEx driver making a pickup was confronted by two men wearing masks. The men put what the FedEx driver believed to be firearm to her head, asked for keys to truck. They stole an engagement ring and cash. In addition to this incident, the following is compiled from police reports from the Towson and Cockeysville precincts.