Route 50

State police searching for two armed fugitives from Canada last night closed off Route 50 from Routes 424 to 301, creating a three-mile traffic backup along Route 50.According to police, a trooper driving on Route 50 at 11:30 p.m. stopped to check on two pedestrians. One was armed with a .357-caliber Magnum, the other carried a 9mm handgun, and the officer and the men exchanged gunfire.Both suspects fled the scene on foot, and police were combing the area last night. Police identified them as Eric W. Shoemacher, 21, and Don Roger Nelson, 20, both wanted on assault charges in Toronto.

A collision involving four vehicles on eastbound Route 50 near the exit for Rowe Boulevard in Annapolis on Wednesday morning left two people injured and significantly slowed morning traffic through the area, according to the Maryland State Police. Two people were taken to Anne Arundel Medical Center with injuries sustained in the accident, a police dispatcher at the Glen Burnie Barrack said. She did not know their condition. The two right-hand deceleration lanes onto the exit ramp for Rowe Boulevard remained blocked as of 10 a.m., and police remained on the scene, the dispatcher said.

THE IRONY of celebrating the just-concluded Black History Month is that history for blacks is still happening; their history is their present, and their future their past. All the degradation, intolerance, enmity and inequality still exists. Life for them has never has been nor ever will be the "crystal stair" poet Langston Hughes spoke of.The distance this country still must traverse to achieve racial equality is most apparent outside the big cities. The city has a way of covering over its inequities.

Planned bridge construction that has one lane of Route 50 west closed in Queenstown caused a 12-mile traffic backup Sunday afternoon, according to the State Highway Administration. The backup stretched from the bridge over Route 301 in Queenstown to just before Old Skipton Road in the Cordova area, according to Charlie Gischlar, a SHA spokesman. "That's a pretty major backup," he said. Gischlar suggested drivers take Route 213 to Route 301 to avoid the backup. The construction began last week to replace the driving surface on the bridge, which has been patched many times but finally needed to be completely replaced, Gischlar said.

A 33-year-old Annapolis woman was killed Monday afternoon when her 1990 Toyota Camry sideswiped another car on Route 50, flipped over and landed on its roof, state police reported yesterday.Debbie L.B. Wallace, of the 1300 block of Harbor Road, was trying to switch lanes on the eastbound side of Route 50 near northbound I-97 about 4:15 p.m. when she hit a 1990 Ford Escort driven by Lauri M. Klagenberg, 38, of Annapolis, police said.Ms. Wallace lost control of her car, which spun out to the right shoulder of Route 50, rolled and flipped, police said.

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.

Esther Stephens knows it's morning by the rumble of rush-hour traffic that shakes her out of sleep in her modern suburban home at Heritage Harbour.Living next to Route 50, the heavily traveled corridor between Annapolis and Washington, has been a noisy nightmare, she told the governor yesterday.Gov. William Donald Schaefer stopped by her neighborhood to announce that residents will soon be protected by a sound barrier. He brought the same tidings of relief to North River Forest on the other side of Route 50 and to a Laurel neighborhood off Interstate 95 in Prince George's County.

WHEN HE travels over the Bay Bridge to run chartered fishing trips on the Eastern Shore, Baltimore resident Tom Martin says ++ he experiences inner peace.Nirvana, though, evaporates at the Kent Narrows Bridge.That's where Martin says he begins to notice the destruction of median strips along Route 50 -- for what he says is no apparent reason. It seems that tire tracks have ripped the sod, even in areas close to paved turnarounds that should be used for U-turns.Martin took his complaint to a Maryland State Police barracks on the Shore after he witnessed troopers turning about in the medians, either to catch a speeder or to set a radar trap.

The route to the Delaware shore is dotted with intriguing little antiques shacks and shops boasting such hand-painted signs as "Bob's Old Beds" and "Antiques Here." A drive to the beach provides the perfect opportunity for hunting antiques in these sleepy little towns along Route 50 and Route 404. But what's worth the stop? There's nothing less fun than a long drive to the beach broken up only by a series of stops at ho-hum shops. So we've done the legwork for you, discovering the real finds amid the shops that seemingly contain no more than the dumped contents of a junk drawer, circa 1985.

Expect traffic problems if you're trying to get to Navy's home football game against Air Force on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. Because of the United States Sailboat Show at Annapolis City Dock and construction on Route 50, police and naval academy officials are urging fans to arrive early and use alternate routes.A crowd of close to 35,000 is expected for the game at Navy- Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.From Baltimore, try to avoid Interstate 97, which merges with Route 50. Consider taking Route 2 (or Route 10 to Route 2)

One person died in a three-vehicle accident on Interstate 97 in Anne Arundel County Friday afternoon, police said. Just before 4 p.m., the crash occurred on the southbound side of the highway at the spur to eastbound U.S. Route 50, according to Maryland State Police. The crash is being investigated by officers from the Glen Burnie Barracks, who had not made any details about the accident's cause available by 10 p.m. The accident caused traffic on the two highways to back up for miles until the early evening.

An early morning accident Monday on Route 50 near Parole claimed the life of a 33-year-old driver. Brian Scott Jonelis of Annapolis died at the scene of the accident, police said. Maryland State Police responded to the crash at 12:45 a.m. The victim, who was driving a GMC truck eastbound on Route 50, struck the guard rail as he attempted to exit on the ramp to Route 450, The truck turned over several times and the driver and a woman passenger were both ejected. The driver's legs were pinned under the truck, when it caught fire.

High temperatures and intense heat caused the pavement of four eastbound lanes of Route 50 in Prince George's County to buckle Sunday afternoon, forcing the State Highway Administration to close the lanes to traffic. "Imagine almost like there's a huge tree root that heaves up a huge section of pavement," said David Buck, a SHA spokesman. The buckled section is about 50 feet long by 40 feet wide, between Routes 197 and 301, Buck said. Word of the damaged roadway first came into the SHA about 3 p.m., and forced the closure of the HOV lane and the highway's three left lanes.

A Westminster man was killed Saturday by a light pole that fell on him on the side of Route 50 in Queen Anne's County after he lost control of his motorcycle on the roadway and it struck the pole, Maryland State Police said. Police believe Philip Jeffrey Merson, 59, was traveling in the left lane of the eastbound roadway shortly after 2:30 p.m. when he lost control of his red and black 2009 Honda motorcycle and swerved to the right, across three lanes and onto the exit ramp for Nesbit Road.

Preliminary toxicology reports show both drivers in a head-on collision early Saturday on Route 50 were drunken driving, Maryland State Police said Tuesday. Police have been investigating the Anne Arundel County accident that killed Terry Davis, 55, of Severna Park, who was driving a BMW convertible, and Brittany Ann Walker, 19, a 2010 Meade Senior High School graduate who was driving a Chrysler Sebring the wrong way in an eastbound lane of the highway near Davidsonville Road. Also killed were Walker's passengers, Breanna Marie Franco, 18, and Zachary Tyler Rose, 18. Rose was a 2011 graduate of Meade High and Franco graduated from Severna Park High School in 2011 Police haven't reported a reason that Walker was driving the wrong way on the divided highway.

Three Anne Arundel County teens traveling the wrong way toward oncoming traffic were killed early Saturday in a head-on collision that also killed the second driver on state Route 50 near Davidsonville Road, Maryland State Police said. Breanna Marie Franco, 18, Brittany Ann Walker, 19, and Zachary Tyler Rose, 18, were in a vehicle traveling west in an eastbound lane of Route 50 that struck a second vehicle head on before 3:30 a.m., troopers said. The vehicle operated by the teens briefly caught fire.

Maryland State Police, Annapolis police and the Naval Academy Athletic Association are warning motorists traveling to Annapolis on Saturday to take alternate routes into the city to avoid traffic from the Navy-Air Force football game and the annual Sailboat Show at City Dock.The football game starts at 1:30 p.m. at Navy-Marine Corps Stadium. In addition, construction crews are working on U.S. Route 50.Police officials and the athletic association suggest that motorists from Washington heading to the football game take Central Avenue (state Route 214)

All lanes of eastbound Route 50 were closed for more than three hours Friday afternoon because of a single vehicle accident past at Exit 29 to Route 179, just before the Bay Bridge, according to the state Department of Transportation. The accident occurred about 3:30 p.m. and debris in the roadway kept the route closed, halting all eastbound traffic. Lanes were backed up more than six miles, from Exit 29 south of Cape St. Clare through Parole. The transportation department told drivers to avoid the area and heavy traffic slowed roads around Annapolis.

Ask Dunbar's football players how they stay motivated in a lopsided regional championship romp, and they likely all will say the same thing: another state title. The defending state Class 1A champs earned their ninth straight trip to the state semifinals and another 1A South regional crown with a 50-6 win over Surrattsville Saturday afternoon at Poly. They move on to face undefeated Overlea in next weekend's final four. "Getting to the semifinals, you've got to keep the train moving, keep the engine going," Poets lineman Dariz Hill said.