The National Transportation Safety Board has released an initial report regarding a crash that killed six highway construction workers in Maryland last month, and it states the two vehicles that collided before the fatal crash were reportedly going above the 55 mph speed limit “and greater than the speed of the adjacent traffic.”
After the two cars collided, the report states, a 2017 Acura driven by 54-year-old Lisa Adrienna Lea veered into the work zone along the stretch of Interstate 695 near Woodlawn through a gap in the jersey barriers, before striking and killing the six workers on the highway project.
The driver of the Acura was injured and treated at the University of Maryland Medical Center’s Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore.
The work zone was part of a project stretching about 19 miles of I-695 between Interstate 70 and Maryland State Highway 43.
The workers killed in the crash were 46-year-old Rolando Ruiz of Laurel; 46-year-old Sybil Lee Dimaggio of Glen Burnie; 43-year-old Carlos Orlando Villatoro Escobar and his 52-year-old brother Jose Armando Escobar, both of Frederick; 31-year-old Mahlon Simmons III and his father, 52-year-old Mahlon Simmons II of Union Bridge, Maryland.
At the time of the crash, NTSB spokesperson Peter Knudson told WTOP in an email, “It is certainly one of the worst crashes involving highway construction workers in recent years.”
The 20-year-old driver of the Volkswagen Jetta, which had collided with the Acura, was not hurt in the crash.
Maryland State Police and the State Highway Administration are also investigating the crash.
It’s not exactly clear when the NTSB’s final report will be completed, but investigations into crashes can take anywhere from one to two years.
