The driver of an Acura who fatally struck six construction workers on a stretch of highway outside Baltimore collided with another vehicle moments before her car plowed into the laborers, investigators said Thursday.
“Crash team investigators believe this caused the Acura to lose control and subsequently traveled through the barrier opening into the work zone and overturned,” state police said.
The revelation came as Maryland State Police released the names of the driver and the six victims of Wednesday’s crash on the inner loop of Interstate 695 known as the Baltimore Beltway.
All the victims were Maryland residents and contractual workers, police said.
Two of them, Mahlon Simmons II, 52, and Mahlon Simmons III, 31, were father and son, police said. Both lived in Union Bridge.
Rolando Ruiz, 46, of Laurel; Carlos Orlando Villatoro Escobar, 43, of Frederick; Jose Armando Escobar, 52, of Frederick; and Sybil Lee Dimaggio, 46, of Glen Burnie, were also killed.
At the home of Jose Armando Escobar, a grieving woman who answered the phone simply said, “He died.” Then she hung up.
The driver of the Acura, 54-year-old Lisa Adrienne Lea, of Randallstown, Marlyand, was being treated at the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore, police said.
They did not provide Lea’s condition but said she was alone in the vehicle at the time of the crash.
“Charges are pending the outcome of the investigation and consultation with the Baltimore County State’s Attorney,” the state police said in a statement.
Lea was attempting to change lands around 12:40 p.m. Wednesday when she struck the “front corner panel” on the passenger side of a Volkswagen and careened into a work zone between the Jersey barriers and struck the workers before flipping over, police said.
In the aftermath, helicopter footage showed the Acura upside down surrounded by broken construction materials and other debris. All of the victims were pronounced dead at the scene, police said.
The Volkswagen was…
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