By Martin Weil
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 23, 2008

A woman was killed on Maryland's Eastern Shore on Friday when a state police car struck her vehicle after sliding on ice, as the region remained in the grip of unseasonable cold.

The crash victim was identified as Kristin Underkoffler, 34, of Delmar, Md. Her car was hit shortly before 6:30 p.m. in Vienna, Md., by a state police patrol car on its way to a crash on Route 50 at the Vienna bridge, state police said.

The woman's car was stopped directly behind a tractor-trailer on eastbound Route 50, police said. They said that as the trooper's car approached the crash scene, it slid on a patch of ice. The woman's car was struck in the left rear. It rotated and hit the rear of the trailer.

State police said the icy conditions had contributed to several crashes at the same place Friday.

Police said the officer, State Trooper 1st Class Paul Zimmerman, 48, was treated at a hospital for minor injuries and released.

Yesterday was the coldest day of the season in Washington, with the lowest temperature recorded in more than eight months.

The temperature at Reagan National Airport fell to 26 degrees at 7:11 a.m., the coldest recorded since Feb. 29, when the temperature was 25 degrees. The reading was 12 degrees below the normal low for the date, which is 38 degrees.

As the day went on, it did not get much warmer. The high temperature for the day was 37 degrees, one degree less than the normal low temperature for the date.

The high was also 18 degrees less than the normal high for Nov. 22, which is 55 degrees.

Yesterday's high, reached at 2:28 p.m., was 40 degrees below last year's reading on the same date. Last year's 77-degree high set a record for Nov. 22.

Temperatures here have been below normal for the past seven days, and several days have been marked by snow showers.

The last day of above-normal temperatures came Nov. 15, when the mercury at the airport soared to 74 degrees.

Since then, the highest temperature was the 52 degrees recorded Nov. 16.