A nurse who stopped to help after a crash that injured two people on Interstate 70 in western Maryland accidentally fell from a bridge as she approached the scene Wednesday morning, authorities said.
A tractor-trailer loaded with asphault jackknifed, hit a concrete barrier and caught fire after striking the back of a dump truck as both traveled west just before 5 a.m., Maryland State Police said.
Angela M. Weir, 47, a nurse at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center, and her husband were driving in the opposite direction and stopped to help. Not realizing the opposite lanes of the highway were not connected by the bridge, police said, she hopped over the median to render aid to the drivers and fell more than 75 feet into the Monocacy River near Frederick.
Her husband called 911, and a responding state trooper pulled her from the water. She was flown to Shock Trauma, police said.
Charles H. Williams, 53, of Baltimore, had been driving the dump truck with no lights on when the collision took place, police said. Williams was also flown to Shock Trauma.
The tractor-trailer driver, Douglas L. Sexton, 58, of Sparrows Point, was taken to Meritus Hospital in an ambulance for treatment, police said.
Police did not release information on any of the three injured people's condition. The crash is under investigation, and charges are pending, police said.
The State Highway Administration put up temporary jersey walls, and police closed the roadway from about 5 to 8:30 a.m., officials said.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
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