People were yelling at him to slow down, but Buck John Benny apparently didn't listen.
The 16-year-old was driving home Wednesday night from swimming at Patapsco Valley State Park, behind the wheel of an old Plymouth Acclaim packed with friends and relatives, including a teenager crammed in the back seat holding her 3-year-old nephew on her lap.
John Ward, a passenger, said the car was racing south on Ridge Road near the Elkridge Furnace Inn. Anne Arundel County police said Benny lost control and slammed into a tree, killing the toddler and severely injuring the other occupants.
"He's my friend, but what kind of friend does that?" Ward, 16, said Thursday after he left a hospital against his doctor's advice and spent the day on the couch of his Lansdowne home, his arm in a sling, his leg bandaged. "He said he was taking us home."
The crash near the Howard and Baltimore County lines is being blamed on speed and reckless driving, and prosecutors are reviewing the case to determine possible charges. Police said only two occupants were wearing seat belts. One of them, 18-year-old Britney L. Shiflett, had the belt around both herself and her nephew, Joseph Eugene Sutherlin, according to Ward's mother.
"The outcome would have been different if the child had been in a safety seat," said Anne Arundel County police spokesman Justin Mulcahy. State law requires children of that age to be in safety seats, and because the driver was under 18, all those in the car, including those in the back, were required to buckle up.
Some of the car's occupants were from Lansdowne and Halethorpe, and others from Southwest Baltimore. Most relatives were at Maryland Shock Trauma Center on Thursday, visiting the surviving victims.
The crash occurred a few minutes after 8 p.m. Police identified the driver as Benny, who lives in Halethorpe. Ward said Benny had wanted to drive to a hilly road in Ellicott City where people sometimes go joy-riding, but the others told him no.
Ward said Benny sped down Ridge Road, swerving on a part that curves along the contours of the Patapsco River. Police said he lost control, went off the road and hit a large tree near Furnace Avenue. Long skid marks marked by police with blue spray paint, a single pink flip-flop decorated with polka dots and a black T-shirt were among the reminders left along the two-lane road.
In a statement, police said that "speed, reckless driving and driver error were contributing factors to the crash. The severity of the injuries and the death of the three-year-old child were the result of non-usage of occupant safety restraints."
Benny was rushed to Shock Trauma, where his condition was upgraded from critical to fair by Thursday afternoon. The front-seat passenger, Gary Wayne Ellison, 18, of Lansdowne, who was wearing a seat belt, was in serious condition.
In the back of car were John Ward; his girlfriend, Britney Shiflett; and her sister, Jamie L. Shiflett, 17, both of whom live on Frederick Road in Baltimore. Britney Shiflett was in critical and stable condition. Jamie Shiflett was in serious condition. The toddler, Joseph, was pronounced dead at St. Agnes Hospital.
On Thursday, friends of the family stopped at the house to express their condolences. "That's devastating," said Chrissy Puckett. "He's just the sweetest little thing. That's a tragedy, it really is."
Samantha Johnson, who is a friend of the dead child's mother, wiped tears from her eyes. "He was just beginning his life," she said.
The Ridge Road accident was one of three single-vehicle fatal accidents in Anne Arundel and Howard Counties in two days.
About 3:30 a.m. Thursday, Arundel police said, Daniel John Sohovich II, 23, of Edgewater, was killed when he lost control of his car in Harwood. Authorities said the car rolled into a guardrail, and that the driver, who was not wearing a seat belt, was thrown out.
In Howard County, police said a female driver apparently suffered a medical emergency and drove her 2007 Infiniti off Brittany Drive and into a tree in Ellicott City. Her name has not been released.
Baltimore Sun reporter Don Markus contributed to this article.