The crash that killed six construction workers nearly three months ago on Interstate 695 in Baltimore County has prompted numerous probes, a push for new work zone regulations and legal battles that will continue for months or years.
Although the public will have to wait a year or two to see the National Transportation Safety Board’s comprehensive investigation of what exactly happened March 22 on the Baltimore Beltway, criminal charges against the two drivers involved in the crash in Woodlawn have shed new light on the accident.
Here’s what we know so far about what happened.
Before the crash
Five construction workers employed by Montgomery County-based Concrete General — Rolando Ruiz, 46, of Laurel; Carlos Orlando Villatoro Escobar, 43, and his brother, Jose Armando Escobar, 52, both of Frederick; and Mahlon Simmons III, 31, and his father, Mahlon Simmons II, 52, both of Union Bridge — and an inspector for Sparks-based KCI Technologies, Sybil Lee DiMaggio, 46, of Severna Park, went to work at the site that day.
Their job site was between both left shoulder lanes of I-695, north of the Beltway’s exits onto I-70 and Security Boulevard. Thei were contracted by the State Highway Administration to convert the left shoulders into temporary travel lanes that would be activated during peak hours.
DiMaggio, who regularly climbed up scaffolding on high rises and worked on the side of freeways for her work, was “terrified of that job site,” her husband told The Baltimore Sun the day after the crash.
The work zone was protected by a series of concrete barriers, with several access points to allow construction vehicles inside.
The barriers made the work zone about as safe as it could have been, said Gerald Ullman, a senior research engineer at the Texas A&M Transportation Institute. Although most work zones use plastic cones to keep vehicles out, concrete barriers are the best protection from moving vehicles available. The access points left only a slight chance of entry.
“I don’t know what else from a work zone design standpoint they could have done,” Ullman said.
That March day, Melachi Duane Darnell Brown, 20, drove a white Volkswagen Jetta north on the Beltway. Prosecutors say they obtained footage of his vehicle four minutes before the crash, rapidly switching lanes and accelerating.
Prosecutors also believe Lisa Adrienne Lea, 54, was impaired while she drove north on the interstate in a gray Acura TLX.
The speed limit near the work zone was 55 mph. Both motorists are accused of driving at speeds over 120 mph, though their indictments do not say when they reached that speed. They had traveled about 1.8 miles parallel to the work site before they collided.
The crash
Footage provided to media outlets after the crash shows Brown’s vehicle in the left-most lane of the inner loop. Lea’s vehicle was in the next lane to the right but appears to be moving into the left lane — and Brown’s Volkswagen — when the Acura comes into view of the state transportation camera near Dogwood Road.
Moments later, the vehicles’ sides collide. Prosecutors said Brown’s vehicle was traveling at about 111 mph at the time of the collision, and Lea’s car’s speed was clocked at 108 mph. Police obtained the speeds from a search through the vehicles’ event data recorders.
For a few moments, Lea’s vehicle pushes Brown’s into the concrete barrier. But the Volkswagen continues moving straight as the Acura pivots sideways in front of Brown’s vehicle. Once the cars reach an opening in the concrete barrier, Lea’s vehicle enters, striking construction materials and the six workers about five seconds after the initial collision. Her vehicle eventually overturned and came to a stop in the work zone.
Ullman said the crash was an unusual, deadly mix of poor driving and bad coincidence.
“The exact wrong sequence of events happened to allow that vehicle to enter the workspace,” he said.
Unlike the crash on the Beltway, most work-zone-related crashes do not involve a vehicle intruding into the space, Ullman said. Intrusion events have been difficult to study, but research has shown most are caused by driver error, especially speeding.
The aftermath
The six workers were pronounced dead at the scene. Lea suffered critical injuries and was taken to the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore. Brown stopped his vehicle about 880 feet past the crash site and cooperated with police.
The shock wave from the workers’ deaths prompted statements of grief from officials from Maryland and beyond. U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg held a moment of silence the next day during a hearing on Capitol Hill. Families of the six workers remembered their loved ones as they made final arrangements. State police increased their presence at work zones, and Gov. Wes Moore announced a new statewide highway safety task force headed by Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller.
Maryland State Police said shortly after the crash that charges were pending against the drivers. The National Transportation Safety Board also announced a probe into the crash. A preliminary report released by the federal agency in April did not reveal much, but intricate details of the crash will be included in a final report slated to be released within one or two years.
More details from the state police investigation of the crash seeped into public light last week as both drivers were charged with felony manslaughter counts and appeared in court for the first time. They are both scheduled for their next appearance in Baltimore County Circuit Court on June 26.
Mike Belsky, an attorney representing DiMaggio’s estate, called the charges against the drivers the “first step toward accountability” for the crash. But he also assigned blame for the crash to the layout of the work zone.
“This construction site was so deficiently designed and dangerous that an accident like this was imminent,” he said.
Ullman disagreed, saying the crash was “100% on the drivers’ bad decisions with bad consequences in the wrong spot.”
“It’s just not something you can design around,” he said.
