THE REGION
Driver Charged After I-95 Chase, Collisions
A 22-year-old District man was arrested and charged with reckless driving and driving under the influence yesterday after leading two Maryland State Police cruisers on a chase onto the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, where his vehicle collided with two other cars and injured four members of a family.
Troopers said yesterday that Donovan James was traveling north on Interstate 95 in a Chevrolet Beretta, going about 80 mph, when he passed a state police cruiser about 6 a.m. Police gave chase, and James exited onto Pennsylvania Avenue near Forestville before getting back onto the interstate going south over the Wilson Bridge.
On the bridge, James' vehicle struck a Toyota Sienna carrying a family of four, police said. The Sienna rolled over several times, and the Beretta rolled over once, ejecting James. The Beretta then struck a Dodge Caravan carrying a husband and wife.
The family of four was transported to Inova Fairfax Hospital with injuries not deemed life-threatening, state police said. James was hospitalized in stable condition. The couple in the Caravan were not injured.
THE DISTRICT
Slots Consultants Set to Testify Today
Out-of-town consultants who helped manage a hotly contested petition drive to legalize slot machines in the District are expected to testify today during the fifth day of hearings before the Board of Elections and Ethics.
Yesterday evening, board Chairman Wilma A. Lewis and others heard from two slots supporters before tossing out 16 petitions with up to 320 signatures because the petitions contained either two names and addresses of people who circulated the petitions or because the circulators' names had been altered. Slots supporters, who gathered more than 56,000 signatures, need 17,599 of them to be valid to place the issue before voters.
Lewis could make crucial decisions today about how to define a "circulator." Challengers have contended that many signature gatherers are not D.C. residents.
John Ray, an attorney for the slots initiative, said D.C. residents gathering signatures need only be in the presence of voters signing their names and that these "circulators'' don't have to personally circulate the petitions. Nothing in the law prevents nonresidents from helping these people gather signatures, he added.
Two Boys Rescued From Rowhouse Fire
District firefighters rescued two unconscious young boys from a rowhouse fire yesterday, officials said.
The blaze apparently started before midnight Saturday at a home in the 100 block of U Street NE, when bedsheets caught fire from a short circuit in a nearby lamp, said Alan Etter, spokesman for the city's Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department.
Adults in the home thought they had put out the fire, but "obviously they didn't," Etter said. Firefighters were called shortly before 3:30 a.m. after the fire rekindled, he said.
Three adults and seven children were sleeping in the home, Etter said. Initially, two boys, 4 and 6, could not be found. Firefighters later found them under a bed and in a closet amid heavy smoke, Etter said.
