Southbound

A lane of southbound traffic was closed briefly on the Baltimore-Washington Parkway in Anne Arundel County last night after metal chains dangling from the Baltimore Beltway overpass shattered windshields on several buses and trucks, state police reported. A police spokesman said the chains - for construction work on the Beltway - apparently came loose and dangled far enough below to strike the windshields of high vehicles, such as trucks and buses, on the parkway. Southbound traffic was diverted to one lane while a state roads crew retrieved and secured the chains.

The southbound lane of Route 1 across Conowingo Dam in Harford and Cecil counties will be closed again this weekend for repaving, according to the Maryland State Highway Administration, which advises motorists to expect some delays. Last Friday, SHA began conducting full weekend 24-hour single-lane closures on southbound Route 1 (Conowingo Road) over the Conowingo Dam Bridge. The second closure will occur between Friday at 6 p.m. through Monday at 6 a.m. The single-lane closures are necessary to allow crews to resurface the highway lanes on the bridge deck over the Susquehanna River.

One person was injured last night in a multi-vehicle accident on Interstate 95 in Catonsville that delayed traffic for more than an hour, state police reported. About 8:45 p.m., two southbound vehicles collided on I-95 near the Beltway, causing one to overturn while the other landed on top of it and burst into flames. Two other vehicles then crashed into them, police said. Heavy southbound traffic came to a halt, backing up for more than 2 miles before two of the traffic lanes were reopened.

The developer of a casino scheduled to open next month at Arundel Mills will temporarily restrict southbound access to the mall beginning next week during road construction to prepare for an expected traffic increase. Work on the $5 million in traffic and road upgrades began Tuesday, officials from the Baltimore-based Cordish Cos. announced. The centerpiece of the plan is a new interchange at the Baltimore-Washington Parkway and Arundel Mills Boulevard in Hanover. The $500 million Maryland!

Two people were injured last night, one of them critically, when three vehicles collided in the southbound lanes of Interstate 95 in Howard County, less than a mile from the scene of a fatal crash Tuesday, state police reported. The latest crash occurred shortly after 8 p.m. near a rest area in the Savage area, where a passer-by reported seeing a fireball rising from the site - apparently from an exploding gasoline tank. Details were unavailable. One victim was taken to Laurel Regional Hospital, and the other to Maryland Shock Trauma Center, said state police Sgt. William Bergan at the Waterloo Barracks.

Two women, including a Johns Hopkins University student, were killed yesterday in a six-vehicle accident in the southbound lanes of the Jones Falls Expressway that was caused by an elderly man driving the wrong way, police said. Police said the 85-year-old man entered the wrong ramp at either the Druid Park Lake Drive/28th Street or North Avenue exit and began traveling north in the southbound lanes about 5: 15 p.m. The man, who was driving a 1991 Ford Taurus, collided with a 1998 Saturn north of the Falls Road exit and then collided with several other vehicles, police said.

The Baltimore Department of Transportation today announced nightly ramp closures this week along Northern Parkway to southbound Interstate 83 for utility work. Detours are scheduled to go into effect tonight, and the ramp will close between 8 p.m. and 5 a.m. each night through Friday, weather permitting, officials said. One lane of the southbound Jones Falls Expressway will also be closed for traffic this week, according to the department. Motorists traveling in this vicinity are encouraged to use alternate routes.

All southbound lanes of the Baltimore-Washington Parkway near Interstate 195 in Linthicum were briefly closed this afternoon after a vehicle drove through a construction barrier and struck three workers, according to Maryland State Police. Sgt. Philip Nolan said the three workers -- reportedly two men and one woman -- were taken to area hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries. The driver of the blue Volkswagen involved in the accident was not injured, Nolan said. He could not immediately provide the model of the vehicle, and police were investigating why the driver went through the barrier.

A Rosedale area man was struck and killed early this morning on Interstate 795 in Owings Mills after he and the driver of the vehicle he was riding in got into a dispute, during which both men got out and ran along the roadway, according to Maryland State Police. Authorities said Salvatore Aquia, 26, was struck by a tractor-trailer and a pickup truck around 5:25 a.m. at Mount Wilson Lane as he allegedly ran in and out of traffic, at one point pulling the antenna off a vehicle that swerved and stopped to avoid him and striking the car with the antenna.

MORGAN STATE University students eager to get to the head of the parking class often stop by the right lane curb in the 4400 block of southbound Hillen Road beginning around 8: 30 a.m.Only problem is, parking is illegal there between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m.This attempt to shirk parking laws has caused a continual bottleneck for rush hour commuters navigating the Northeast Baltimore thoroughfare to get to work or school on time."

As of 9 a.m. Tuesday, traffic was slow at I-895 southbound near Moravia Road, due to an accident. Accidents were slowing traffic at Pulaski Highway and Chesaco Avenue in Baltimore City and Philadelphia Road and Joppa Road in Baltimore County. There were no major delays reported on Baltimore area transit systems.

The driver of a tractor-trailer that crashed on southbound Interstate 95 Wednesday evening has been charged with driving while impaired by alcohol, police said. Glenn Grise, 46, of West Orange, N.J., crashed a semitrailer around 8:15 p.m. on an overpass above Interstate 895, turning the truck over in the left lane of I-95, just north of the Harbor Tunnel, according to Sgt. Kirk Perez, a spokesman for the Maryland Transportation Authority Police. Grise's truck was registered to the New Jersey-based G. Grise Trucking company, Perez said.

As of 9 a.m. Friday, traffic was slow on I-95 southbound at Route 212, due to an accident. Accidents were slowing traffic on the outer loop of Route 100 eastbound at Route 195 in Howard County, Route 26 at Fallon Road in Sykesville and Eastern Boulevard and Stemmers Run Road in Baltimore County. Disabled vehicles were blocking traffic on U.S. 50 westbound at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and near Ritchie Highway in Anne Arundel County. A utility problem was slowing traffic on U.S. 40 at Plum Tree Drive in Howard County.

A 35-year-old Gaithersburg woman died following a car accident Tuesday night in Crofton, according to the Anne Arundel County police department. Angela C. Biggins was driving a 2000 Toyota Corolla northbound on Route 3, when she entered the southbound lanes and struck a 2000 Mercedes head-on at about 8:32 p.m. The accident occurred near the highway's intersection with McKnew Road. The Mercedes ended up in a ditch, and the Toyota spun around and stopped in one of the southbound lanes of Route 3. Biggins was transported to Baltimore Washington Medical Center, where she later died.

An accident on southbound Interstate 83 is causing traffic delays between West Cold Spring Lane and the Union Avenue overpass. The northbound lanes appear to be clear. Three people were taken to the hospital with injuries that were not life threatening, a fire dispatcher said. steve.kilar@baltsun.com twitter.com/stevekilar

When Tropical Storm Isabel hit Maryland last year, knocking out power to thousands, the LaDue family of Elkridge shared a generator and barbecued food with eight other families on their close-knit cul-de-sac. Yesterday, families from that community shared their grief after learning that the LaDues' SUV had been involved in a collision with a tractor-trailer in north-central Pennsylvania on Wednesday morning that took the lives of Richard LaDue, 42, and his son, Brandon, 11. Brenda LaDue and her daughter, McKenna, 7, survived the crash with minimal injuries.

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.