September 7, 2008
I-83 crash kills father, baby
Second car strikes theirs while man is trying to get his son out of car seat after their vehicle hit guardrail
Police said the accident occurred about 3 a.m. just south of Belfast Road in Hunt Valley, when a 2001 Mazda struck a guardrail and became disabled on the highway, according to Maryland State Police Trooper Jason James of the Golden Ring Barracks. (Sun photo by Kim Hairston / July 22, 2008)
Clint Jones, back home in southern Anne Arundel County but still wearing a hospital gown, and bandages on his head, grimaced with pain as he recalled the early-morning accident on Interstate 83.
He and a cousin had been making idle chatter about how much farther the group had to drive to get to Harrisburg. A 2-month-old boy was in a car seat. The baby's mother had the wheel.
"The next thing I know, we hit the rumble strip," Jones said.
The driver "went one way, went the other way, then tried to correct it, and the car did a 180 into the guardrail," he said. "That's when I went out the window."
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The car came to a stop in the highway. And as the boy's father tried to unstrap his child from the car, the vehicle was rear-ended.
Both of them died.
Ronnel S. Offer, 25, of Galesville was pronounced dead at the scene, according to Maryland State Police. His son, Tyler M. Offer, of Harrisburg, Pa., died at Sinai Hospital shortly after the 3 a.m. accident.
Three others who had been in the car, including Jones and the child's mother, Erika L. Braun, 19, of Harrisburg, were injured.
The driver and passenger in the car that hit them were also injured.
The accident closed the northbound lanes of I-83 between Shawan and Belfast roads in northern Baltimore County for more than four hours, causing delays during the morning commute.
Investigators are trying to piece together what caused the crash. Both vehicles were apparently headed to homes in Pennsylvania.
Police were waiting to talk to Braun about whether she might have fallen asleep or anything that could have caused her to lose control of her 2001 Mazda 626, said Sgt. Arthur Betts, a state police spokesman.
Investigators were looking at other factors. The car was disabled in the right lane of the highway near the crest of a hill, on the downward side, when it was hit.
After the car hit the guardrail, its headlights might not have been working, police said. That area of the highway has no overhead lights.
Alcohol does not appear to have been a factor in the accident, police said. No charges had been filed yesterday.
After the Mazda hit the guardrail, Jones, 24, of Galesville was thrown through the car's rear window, police said.
Braun, along with Ronnel Offer and another passenger, Demarco T. Offer, 21, also of Galesville, got out of the car.
But as Ronnel Offer leaned in, unfastened the baby from his car seat and began to take him out, a 2007 Toyota Prius hit them, police said.
Transportation experts say there is no definitive advice for drivers to follow in the critical minutes after a crash.
"I don't think there's a textbook answer," said Ragina Averella, a spokeswoman for AAA Mid-Atlantic and former Baltimore police officer. "Each situation is different. The safest thing to do depends on the type of road, what lane you're in, the time of day, the weather."
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