Southbound

A girl was killed and three other teen-agers injured yesterday when a 1994 Pontiac Grand Am went out of control on southbound Bartholow Road near Linton Road in Sykesville about 1: 30 p.m., struck a mailbox pole and rolled several times, state police said.Police said two girls were ejected and one of them, age 14, died at the scene. The other girl, the male driver, age 16, and another boy were in serious condition at Maryland Shock Trauma Center.Pub Date: 2/15/99

A man was killed last night when he lost control of his van on snow-covered Route 97 in Carroll County and collided with another van, said state police in Westminster.According to Trooper Robert Stryjewski, a southbound van skidded on a curve about 8 p.m., crossed the center line and collided with a northbound van near Silver Run south of the Pennsylvania line.The driver of the southbound van was pronounced dead at the scene, said Stryjewski, and the other driver was taken to Carroll County General Hospital in Westminster, where his condition was not available.

An 1,800-pound bull named Charlie who jumped from a trailer onto Interstate 795 in Owings Mills yesterday was shot and killed by state police after a two-hour attempt to capture the animal.The incident occurred during evening rush hour. Before he was brought down, the 4-year-old black Angus evaded the two men taking him to auction as well as state troopers and a half-dozen motorists who left their cars to chase the bull over and around the interstate.The incident began about 5: 15 p.m. when Charlie apparently kicked his way out of the trailer as his owner drove north on I-795.

The driver of a flatbed tractor-trailer was ejected from the rig's cab and killed yesterday when the vehicle struck a guardrail on a ramp leading to southbound Interstate 95 in Elkridge and overturned on an embankment.James J. Niziolek, 41, of the 3000 block of O'Donnell St. in East Baltimore, was pronounced dead at the scene, said Lori Vidal, a spokeswoman for the Maryland Transportation Authority Police.Vidal said Niziolek was hauling a 20-ton coil of steel to Clinton, N.C., and was southbound on Interstate 895 about 2: 30 p.m. when the accident occurred.

A Cecil County man was killed early yesterday when he was struck by three cars on Route 213 about three miles south of Elkton, according to state police Sgt. Emory Evans.John W. Yerkes, 57, was standing in the southbound lane of the two-lane road about 12: 30 p.m. when he was hit by a white 1997 Volvo driven by a 27-year-old Centreville man, Evans said. Yerkes then was struck by two other southbound cars, said Evans, adding that the vehicles appeared to be traveling at the speed limit.Yerkes was pronounced dead at the scene, Evans said.

HOWARD COUNTY'S U.S. 29 has been a creeping mess for quite some time -- and don't expect any relief soon.Thanks to runaway HoCo sprawl in what seems like the townhouse capital of Maryland, State Highway Administration engineers have been forced to add a third lane to the main artery to meet the demands of heavy commuter traffic.Construction that began in April is expected to continue until next April, weather permitting, says SHA's Valerie Burnette Edgar. All Edgar could offer for advice last week was that motorists traveling northbound and southbound should continue to expect delays.

A 29-year-old garbage collector was killed yesterday when he was hit by a car in the 1400 block of Fairfield Loop Road in Crownsville.The victim, Kevin R. Adams of Odenton, had emptied a trash can into the garbage truck and was retrieving another when he stepped in front of a southbound car that was passing his stopped collection vehicle, Anne Arundel County police said.Adams, who worked for Johnson Family Refuse Inc., died from extensive head injuries, police said.No charges were filed yesterday against the 33-year-old woman who was driving the car.Police said the accident remains under investigation, and charges could be filed after a review by the county state's attorney's office.

Two people were killed yesterday when the car they were riding in crashed into an abandoned truck on southbound Interstate 95 near the Laurel rest area, said state police at the Waterloo Barracks.Jose A. Benitez, 24, of Hyattsville and Martha E. Quintanilla, 17, of Takoma Park were pronounced dead at the scene after the 1985 Pontiac Grand Am they were riding in drifted off the road about 6 a.m. and crashed into a 1994 Ford Bronco that had been abandoned in the southbound median, police said.

A fiery crash involving a state police car left one man dead, three people injured and traffic jammed for nearly three hours yesterday on southbound Interstate 95 near Route 100 in Howard County, state police said.The accident occurred about 12: 45 a.m. when a car driven by Silvester Allen Smith Sr., 48, of the 5700 block of Thunder Hill Road in Columbia veered from the southbound lane onto the right shoulder and struck the parked patrol car, police said.Trooper Jeffrey Eichorn had parked to investigate a disabled vehicle, police said.

One tube of the Harbor Tunnel Thruway will be closed after this evening's rush hour for repairs on a water main pipe that broke yesterday afternoon and forced traffic onto southbound Interstate 895, said a Maryland Transportation Authority spokeswoman.While the southbound tunnel is closed, traffic through the northbound tunnel will run in both directions, said Lori A. Vidil, the spokeswoman. She said the southbound tunnel should reopen by 5 a.m. tomorrow.The steel pipe, between the northbound and southbound tubes, broke shortly after noon, and about 6,000 gallons of water leaked into a collector area between the tunnels, Vidil said.

The State Highway Administration said yesterday that it would install new signals at U.S. 29 to control traffic entering westbound Interstate 70 in Howard County, seeking to improve safety at an interchange that was the scene of a recent fatal crash. The highway agency said it would put up new signals on both directions of U.S. 29 where it meets I-70 in an unusual interchange configuration that allows northbound travelers to get on the westbound interstate from either a right-hand ramp or via a left-hand turn across southbound 29. The interchange was the site of a crash July 19 in which Andrew Noel, 19, was killed when the driver of a passenger vehicle made a left turn toward the interstate in front of Noel's southbound motorcycle.

State police are searching for a motorcyclist who fled from the scene of a crash that killed one person in Howard County on Saturday. The crash occurred about 7:30 p.m. on southbound Interstate 95 just north of Route 100, where a group of six to eight motorcyclists had been driving recklessly at high speeds, according to police. The driver of a 2006 Suzuki GSX-R750, Wayne N. Thomas, 27, of the 4500 block of 24th Ave. in Mount Rainier, was pronounced dead at the scene. A preliminary investigation found that one of the motorcyclists in the group, Thomas, lost control and went off the left side of the roadway, striking the guardrail of the center median.

One killed in motorcycle crash on Interstate 95 4 One person was killed in a motorcycle accident in Howard County last night that left southbound Interstate 95 closed for about two hours, police said. Two motorcycles collided about 7:30 p.m. just north of Route 100 on southbound I-95, according to police. The southbound highway was closed up to the Harbor Tunnel Thruway, where police allowed traffic to cross the median and head north. Southbound lanes began reopening about 9:45 p.m. Police did not release the victim's identity last night, pending notification of family.

Four people were injured early yesterday morning when a tractor-trailer hit another vehicle, overturned and spilled acetone on southbound Interstate 95 in Harford County, prompting road closures during the cleanup and investigation, according to Maryland State Police. Shortly after 2 a.m., the driver of a pickup truck slowed nearly to a stop near the scene of an earlier crash on southbound I-95 south of Route 22, according to a news release. A southbound tractor-trailer rear-ended the pickup and overturned onto the guardrail in the center median, according to the release.

Two dead, one injured in five-vehicle accident The Baltimore-Washington Parkway was snarled yesterday by a major early-morning accident in which two motorists died. All lanes of the parkway in the area of the Powder Mill Road exit in Prince George's County were blocked until about 10:30 a.m, according to authorities. The accident happened shortly after 5 a.m. and involved five vehicles, including one motorcycle, according to Maj. Erroll George, spokesman for the Prince George's County Fire/EMS Department.

The ramp from southbound Hanover Street to southbound Interstate 95 remained closed yesterday evening and likely will be closed this morning while engineers repair damage from yesterday's early-morning tanker fire, according to the Maryland Transportation Authority police. The South Baltimore bridge was shut down about 3 a.m. after a tanker-truck overturned on the ramp, leading to traffic delays forcing the Maryland Transit Administration to temporarily shut down the Camden MARC train line between Baltimore and Washington.

Seven injured, traffic snarled in JFX crash A five-car accident snarled traffic on the Jones Falls Expressway yesterday afternoon and sent seven people to local hospitals, including one person who tried to help a victim, fire officials said. One car hit another about 3 p.m on the southbound side of Interstate 83 just south of Cold Spring Lane, said Chief Kevin Cartwright, a city fire spokesman. "One motorist got out to assess the damage," Cartwright said. "She was struck by another car."

Several people were taken to area hospitals after a series of accidents on the Jones Falls Expressway last night, two of which involved police, according to Baltimore police. The first occurred about 7:20 p.m. on the northbound side of the expressway near the Guilford Avenue exit, said Baltimore police spokeswoman Nicole Monroe. The three-vehicle accident resulted in a taxi cab being turned onto its side, she said, shutting down the northbound side for a brief period. Some people were hospitalized, she said.

A 78-year-old man who was killed in a head-on crash in southern Anne Arundel County on Thursday was identified by police yesterday as Harry Grooms McCrone of West River. McCrone, of the 200 block of Owensville Road, was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident, which occurred about 1:30 p.m. on Solomons Island Road near Jessie Road. Police said McCrone was driving a 2005 Chrysler PT Cruiser south on Solomons Island Road when he was hit by a 2008 GMC truck being driven north. Anne Arundel police said in a statement that the driver of the truck crossed into the southbound lane, "causing several vehicles to the right onto the shoulder."

Two incidents - an oversize load that damaged the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel and an accident at the Bay Bridge toll plaza - complicated traffic yesterday. About 8:30 last night, the top of a backhoe secured to a flatbed trailer being pulled by a dump truck struck the roof of the southbound tube of the tunnel, bringing down ceiling tiles and parts of their support structures, said Cpl. Jonathan Green, a spokesman for the Maryland Transportation Authority Police. There were no injuries and no other vehicles were involved, Green said.