PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY
Beltway Incident That Injured 7 Is Investigated
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 23, 2007; Page B05
Prince George's County police are investigating a multiple-vehicle accident on the Capital Beltway late Wednesday that injured seven people and closed portions of the road for nearly three hours.
It was the second serious crash involving a tractor-trailer on the highway this week.
  This tractor-trailer struck a rescue truck carrying four fire personnel responding to an accident and then ran into two cars that had stopped to let emergency vehicles pass. (By Mark Brady -- Prince George's County Police Department) |
The incident began about 10:30 p.m. on the outer loop when a driver lost control of his car, which rolled over on the exit ramp for Route 295, authorities said. The driver, whose name was not released, was trapped inside.
Several emergency vehicles went to the scene, including a rescue truck from Fort Washington carrying four fire personnel.
A tractor-trailer struck the rescue truck as it approached the scene with its lights flashing and siren sounding, said Mark Brady, a Prince George's fire department spokesman.
The impact knocked the rescue truck on its right side. The tractor-trailer then hit two cars that had pulled to the side of the road to allow emergency vehicles to pass, Brady said.
The four fire personnel in the rescue truck were injured, one critically. Lt. Brian Noel of White Plains, fire technician Timothy Meade of Front Royal and paramedics Joseph Quade of Waldorf and Marvin Perry of Forestville were taken by helicopter to a hospital.
Brady said the condition of the rescue worker injured critically, whom he did not identify, had been upgraded to good. The conditions of the other three could not be determined yesterday.
The man in the initial accident, who was critically injured, was flown to a hospital, where he remained in treatment yesterday for a head injury. Two others were taken by rescue truck to a hospital, Brady said. Authorities did not release their names.
No one has been charged in the incident.
Wednesday's accident came two days after a fatal incident on the Beltway in Prince George's that also involved a tractor-trailer. Maryland State Police said a 54-year-old Delaware truck driver set off the multiple-vehicle accident Monday, which killed a 33-year-old Riverdale man and injured two other men.
State police said Roger Carlett Scofield Jr. was driving on a suspended license when he rear-ended a 1995 Honda Accord on the outer loop north of Route 1 about 11 p.m. The tractor-trailer then struck two other cars traveling in front of the Honda, a 1994 Acura Integra and a 1996 Nissan Altima, police said.
The driver of the Nissan, Jose Marcos Portillo Villalta of the 5800 block of Eastpine Drive, was killed. The drivers of the Honda and the Acura were taken to hospitals.
State police said Scofield pleaded guilty in 2005 to a charge of reckless driving in Caroline County.
