Tragedy struck a stretch of Interstate 695 in Baltimore County, Maryland on Wednesday as six construction workers were killed in a fatal crash. The Maryland State Police identified the victims of the crash as Rolando Ruiz, Carlos Orlando Villatoro Escobar, Jose Armando Escobar, Mahlon Simmons III, Mahlon Simmons II and Sybil Lee DiMaggio. All of them were working on a project known as Transportation Systems Management and Operations, which is intended to alleviate congestion on the Baltimore Beltway.
The driver of the vehicle responsible for the crash, 54-year-old Lisa Adrienna Lea of Randallstown, Maryland, had attempted to change lanes when her car collided with the front corner panel of a Volkswagen Jetta driven by 20-year-old Melachi Brown of Windsor Mill, Maryland. The resulting impact caused Lea's car to lose control and strike the Highway Workers, killing them all before overturning.
The National Transportation Safety Board has assigned two investigators to the case to examine speeding, work zone protection and collision avoidance technology. The American Road & Transportation Builders Association also has written to the U.S. Department of Transportation to urge Federal officials to do more to protect highway construction workers.
At a hearing on Capitol Hill, senators and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg referred to the crash in their calls for increased road safety efforts across the country. Both Maryland Governor Wes Moore and Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski tweeted their condolences.
An analysis of the National Safety Council showed that 860 people were killed in work zone crashes in 2020 and more than 44,000 were injured. Between 2016 and 2020, Maryland had 7,704 work-zone-related crashes that injured 3,263 people and killed 46 people. Of those, about half were motorists.