Truck

It was about a year ago that Jamal Lewis showed up in Westminster in the biggest truck I had ever seen. OK, it wasn't an 18-wheeler, but it was the biggest non-RV personal vehicle I had ever seen up close, so I had to find out what it was all about. Jamal was quite accommodating. He gave me the full tour of his customized, $200,000 monster truck and explained why it was "not a toy." It was, he insisted, a promotional vehicle for the trucking company (All-American Express) that he had started with his football earnings.

Malfunction in truck blamed in Carroll fire An electrical malfunction in the dashboard of a Dodge Durango pickup truck started a two-alarm fire that caused $500,000 in damage to a Union Mills-area home Monday evening, authorities said yesterday. The truck was parked in an attached garage in the 3200 block of Murkle Road when the owner, Curtis Wasmer, smelled an odor when he opened the garage door about 5:30 p.m. When he opened the truck door, smoke poured out of the vehicle, said W. Faron Taylor, deputy state fire marshal.

Spurred by the fatal collapse of a pedestrian footbridge on the Beltway in June, state highway officials for the first time will begin routinely checking truck heights at Maryland's highway weigh stations.Officials said yesterday they plan to install electronic devices that would provide instant measurement of truck heights at the weigh stations, but that no date has been set for the installation."I want to measure the height on every truck," said Parker F. Williams, head of the State Highway Administration.

A Baltimore public works employee was dragged into a jammed asphalt-patching truck yesterday morning in Mill Hill, then became stuck for two hours as workers struggled to free his mangled body.Eric Williams, 27, was in critical condition last night at Maryland Shock Trauma Center after he tried to clear a chute that sucks in asphalt, then spits it out for patching potholes. He was on a crew working in the 2600 block of Dulaney St. as part of Operation Benedict, a three-day neighborhood cleanup by city agencies.

TUESDAY'S accident on the Baltimore beltway illustrates the arbitrary nature of life. For 42 years, a footbridge spanned the busy road without incident. On Tuesday, at the height of rush hour, a truck -- one of thousands that pass through daily -- struck the bridge and it collapsed, killing one motorist and injuring three others.Emergency personnel -- state and county -- responded with dispatch and skill. The injured were quickly attended to and transported to Maryland Shock Trauma Center.

SEATTLE -- What's white, as big as three elephants, worthy of a mention in the New York Times and blamed for the cancellation of the Seattle Center New Year's Eve party?The Propane Services truck stolen from a company in nearby Spanaway Nov. 29.Ever since thieves drove off with the fully loaded propane truck, urban legends about its disappearance have been as plentiful as peanuts.Police suspect that the truck, which carried 2,210 gallons of propane when it was stolen, is parked on someone's property and that the fuel is being used for home heating, said Ed Troyer, spokesman for the Pierce County sheriff's department.

A taxicab and a truck collided in East Baltimore during afternoon rush hour yesterday, killing an unidentified woman and injuring four others, police said.Officer Raymond Howard of the traffic investigation section said a 1978 International truck was eastbound in the 1600 block of E. Fayette St. about 4: 55 p.m. when it struck the passenger side of a 1989 Chevrolet Celebrity taxi that was southbound in the 200 block of N. Broadway and making a left turn onto East Fayette Street. The truck pushed the Rosedale Sedan Service cab across the intersection and into the northbound lane of North Broadway, where it came to rest against the curb.

Police are looking for the driver of a pickup truck that killed a Baltimore man who fell beneath its wheels after a fight Friday morning in Pigtown.The dead man, Kion Smith, 20, of the 2000 block of McElderry St., was found at the intersection of Wilhelm and South Pulaski streets in Southwest Baltimore at 11: 15 a.m., police said.Witnesses told police they saw Smith and the unidentified driver fighting on the side of the street before the driver got into a pickup truck. Smith grabbed the vehicle and clung to the side as the pickup drove off, police said.

Baltimore County police are trying to determine whether a state employee was driving the pickup truck involved in a fatal hit-and-run accident Thursday night, officials said yesterday.Police said they have located the white Ford F-150 that struck Charles Albert Wilburn, 61, of Bush St., as he was walking north on Philadelphia Road. Wilburn was pronounced dead at the scene.The truck involved had a license plate marked "SG," indicating it was part of the state government fleet.A clerk at Koons Chevrolet on Bel Air Road in Baltimore, who had seen news reports about the accident, notified police Friday when a white Ford truck was brought in for repairs.

A city worker's attempt to install a police surveillance camera in Baltimore went awry yesterday when a truck on which he was working lurched forward into the side of a light rail train.Several passengers aboard the train, which derailed, complained of neck and back injuries. Accounts put the number of injured at between four and 20.The city employee fell or jumped from the truck's elevated bucket; a second worker was hit by the rolling vehicle.The noon accident near the Mount Royal station at Maryland Institute, College of Art forced officials to close part of the rail line for 2 1/2 hours.

The pickup truck being sought by police in the hit-and-run death of a Johns Hopkins University student was found parked on a Northwest Baltimore street, and police continue to seek its driver, a city police spokesman said Sunday. Agent Donny Moses, the spokesman, said the white Ford F-250 with Maryland tag 94W412 was found legally parked in the 3800 block of Egerton Road in Ashburton about midnight Saturday after residents there recognized the truck from news accounts of the student's death and called police.

A 24-year-old Columbia man with a history of reckless driving and drug convictions was sentenced to five years in prison Monday for his part in a fatal accident last November that killed his best friend. Alexander Camorali of the 5400 block of Half Flight Garth pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide while under the influence of alcohol after initially being charged with vehicular manslaughter. After spending part of the night at a Baltimore go-go bar, Camorali was driving on Harpers Farm Road when his truck went out of control, smashed into a tree and knocked down a street light.

Harford trash pile arson damages $15,000 shed A shed worth $15,000 was damaged yesterday in an Edgewood fire that officials say was arson. The fire occurred when someone set fire to a large trash pile at the Harford Square Community on Charlestown Drive. The fire, which was set about noon, spread to an adjoining shed. No one was injured. "Somebody got in there and set it on fire," Deputy State Fire Marshal Joseph G. Zurolo Jr. said of the trash. He said he suspected the fire was related to a controversy over trash pickup.

State transportation officials declared the Chesapeake Bay Bridge safe one day after a fatal crash that sent a tractor-trailer over a barrier, a dramatic accident that was described as an "anomaly" caused by speed and the size of the vehicle. But a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board said last night that federal investigators were at the scene for much of yesterday, and are looking into any safety issues that might need to be fixed, including traffic flow and bridge design.

A married father of five who ran over his mistress with a utility truck in her backyard, leaving her critically injured, was convicted yesterday in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court. Timothy Lee Mattoon, 46, of the 600 block of Laurel Drive in Pasadena entered an Alford plea before Circuit Judge Michael E. Loney to first-degree assault, which carries the possibility of up to 25 years in prison. He will be sentenced in June. Under an Alford plea, a defendant denies guilt but concedes that prosecutors have enough evidence for a conviction.

County police said they are seeking the driver of a truck in a hit-and-run accident that seriously injured a Parkville teenager last week. Police said yesterday they believe the vehicle that hit Michael Thompson, 17, of the 1400 block of Parktrail Road might have been a U-Haul truck with a large image of a prehistoric, worm-like creature called the "Tully Monster" on its side. The accident occurred at 8:46 p.m. April 1 on McClean Boulevard near Perring Parkway while Thompson was in a crosswalk, police said.

A father and son were killed yesterday afternoon on the Eastern Shore after a dump truck rear-ended their vehicle, state police said yesterday. The accident in Queen Anne's County, near the Talbot County border, happened about 1:40 p.m. on eastbound Route 404, a partially divided highway that has long been considered one of the Shore's most dangerous roads. The truck was traveling east in Queen Anne's near Pinder Road when the driver failed to stop at a traffic backup, hitting several stopped cars, said State Police Cpl. Art Lohman.

It was about a year ago that Jamal Lewis showed up in Westminster in the biggest truck I had ever seen. OK, it wasn't an 18-wheeler, but it was the biggest non-RV personal vehicle I had ever seen up close, so I had to find out what it was all about. Jamal was quite accommodating. He gave me the full tour of his customized, $200,000 monster truck and explained why it was "not a toy." It was, he insisted, a promotional vehicle for the trucking company (All-American Express) that he had started with his football earnings.

Malfunction in truck blamed in Carroll fire An electrical malfunction in the dashboard of a Dodge Durango pickup truck started a two-alarm fire that caused $500,000 in damage to a Union Mills-area home Monday evening, authorities said yesterday. The truck was parked in an attached garage in the 3200 block of Murkle Road when the owner, Curtis Wasmer, smelled an odor when he opened the garage door about 5:30 p.m. When he opened the truck door, smoke poured out of the vehicle, said W. Faron Taylor, deputy state fire marshal.

Howard County Executive Ken Ulman put a new ambulance and fire engine into operation this week, enabling additional rescue teams to respond to emergencies in the county for the first time since 1994. The county frequently purchases new fire equipment, but in recent years, the new trucks have replaced aging ones or were purchased only for special circumstances, such as a command post for major crises or a heavy rescue vehicle that helps firefighters extract people from damaged cars. The ambulance and tower truck - a fire engine with a tall ladder - will operate out of stations in Columbia and Ellicott City, respectively.