HOWARD COUNTY, Md. — A third highway worker lost their life Thursday after Maryland State Police said a car slammed into a work truck along I-70 in Howard County.
Two other workers are suffering injuries from the early morning crash.
Investigators said 38-year-old Frank William Hall was traveling eastbound on I-70 in a Jeep Wrangler when he swerved and crashed into the back of an Autocar work truck, killing 34-year-old Christopher Marsden and injuring two other workers: 43-year-old Rickey Foster Jr., and 44-year-old James Gonzalez.
Police said there were four MDOT/SHA work trucks and one vehicle parked to alert drivers to the upcoming road work.
“Last night what we had was a situation where one of our workers, one of our contractors, was out on the road and they were doing line striping work, so you do that work at nighttime so you're not impacting the travelers that are out there,” Maryland Department of Transportation Secretary Greg Slate said. “They were setting up on the shoulder of the road, a vehicle was driving down the road and swerved left and then swerved right and immediately struck our crews and then the truck.”
“Christopher Marsden was simply trying to do his job! Let’s be clear, too many injuries and fatalities in work zones are completely preventable,” Slater said in an earlier statement.
Slater said one of the injured workers had been released from the hospital Thursday, and the other is in good condition.
Maryland State Police said it’s too soon to tell if the ‘Move Over’ law was violated or if alcohol was involved.
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Maryland State Police officials said officers have been getting a lot of complaints lately about distracted and aggressive drivers.
Thursday morning’s deadly crash marks the third deadly DMV roadside accident this summer.
In the month of June, the Virginia State Police reported that two tow truck drivers were killed in four days.
Those deaths led family, friends, and the towing community to push for more awareness of the ‘Move Over’ law for emergency responders and tow truck operators displaying flashing lights.
“It's a risky job for our state troopers and for any of our public safety personnel because you can tell by our issued citations a lot of them [drivers] are driving distracted, aggressive and even impaired,” Maryland State Police Spokesperson Elena Russo said. “That brings upon a whole host of dangers to those who live and work on the side of our roads trying to keep us safe.”
Since 2016, Slater said Maryland has had 30 of its MDOT tow trucks hit by drivers while they were staged to protect police officers. He said four of those trucks were hit this year.
“You think about these work zones and you think about people that are out there. And no matter what you're doing, you're within inches of vehicles traveling 30, 40, 50 miles an hour,” Slater said. “These people out there are somebody's mother, father sister, brother, husband, wife. It's critical out there.”
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“We’re trying to protect them, and our truck is hit. So if we weren't there, that's another fatality,” Slater said.
Maryland State Police is also reminding drivers to buckle up, slow down, and drive sober over the holiday weekend, as Russo said more drivers are expected out on the roadways for the Fourth of July.
“Our troopers will be extra vigilant this holiday weekend because a lot of people are using it as a three-day weekend and probably taking trips and that includes that route 50 corridor to the beach,” Russo said. “We're really hoping people will take account of the Move Over law, the pedestrians, the extra traffic that is out there, and all of those laws or distracted and aggressive driving that have been put into effect to keep our motorists safe.”