Burning load of fuel consumes 5 vehicles
Blast heard, smoke seen darkening sky for miles
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By Del Quentin Wilber, Gus D. Sentementes and Alec MacGillis
Sun Staff
Originally published January 14, 2004
A fuel tanker veered off an overpass and plunged onto Interstate 95 in Howard County yesterday afternoon, killing at least four people, triggering huge explosions and towering flames, and shutting down the East Coast's main highway into the night.
The tanker was curling around the overpass on southbound Interstate 895 about 2:45 p.m. when it jackknifed, flipped down an embankment and landed in the northbound I-95 lanes, police and witnesses said.
Unable to stop in time, four northbound vehicles - police described them as a tractor-trailer, another large truck, a pickup truck and a car - crashed into the tanker.
The tanker, carrying what officials said was either gasoline or propane, burst into flames, witnesses said. The fire rose a hundred feet into the air and consumed the vehicles, leaving a blackened expanse of burning and contorted scraps of metal.
Barbara LeKarz, 47, of Ellicott City, was driving north on I-95 when she saw the tanker fall from the overpass and the four vehicles disappear in front of her as she yanked her car to the side of the road. "It was a wall of flame. It was like they were just gone," she said.
Thomas Hooper Jr., 34, of Randallstown, was also driving north on I-95 when he saw the conflagration before him.
"It just exploded. It was a ball of fire," Hooper said. "I was terrified. The heat was incredible. It just exploded in front of me."
One survivor
Only one person - a driver or passenger from a truck on I-95 - survived the five-vehicle crash, police said last night. The number of victims, none identified late last night, depended on whether the vehicles were carrying passengers, said Maryland State Police Superintendent Tim Hutchins.
Late last night, law enforcement officials searching through the charred remains said they had discovered four bodies and might have found two more.
It would be some time before investigators could pick through the devastation to determine just how many people were killed, Hutchins said.
Gary McLhinney, chief of the Maryland Transportation Police, said it was also too soon to identify the remains found.
"We can't even tell what cars we've got, they're so mangled," said McLhinney.
Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. said there were no indications that the crash was an act of terrorism, a possibility many in the area feared when they heard the explosion and saw the tall cloud of smoke climbing from the fire. The fire also did not appear to do serious environmental damage, Ehrlich said.
But that offered little solace after an accident that could rank among the state's deadliest. Ten Fort Meade teen-agers in a pickup truck were killed in 1979 when it crashed into trees, and 10 people were killed in a head-on collision near the Calvert-Anne Arundel county line in 1954.
"This is a horrible, horrendous accident," Ehrlich said. "The [victims'] families need our prayers. This is a very difficult day."
Highways closed
I-95 in Howard County - a stretch that carries nearly 200,000 cars a day - was closed in both directions through the evening rush hour, as police tried to divert traffic onto nearby roads such as U.S. 1, Route 100 and Route 175. Traffic was backed up as far north as Interstate 395 in Baltimore and as far south as Route 32 in Howard County.
Two southbound lanes were opened around 7 p.m., but the northbound highway remained closed late last night as crews searched the scene and cleared the far-flung debris. State highway officials said they hoped to have northbound lanes open this morning, though they couldn't guarantee it.
While damage to the northbound road was not as serious as was initially feared, officials said some repaving would have to be done to cover deep gouges left by the fire.
After structural examinations, officials said the I-895 overpass also seemed to have avoided serious damage. They expected to reopen it early today.
The tanker's first explosion, followed by four or five more, rocked the surrounding area as far as a half-mile away, startling residents and sparking immediate fears of a terrorist attack related to I-95, the Harbor Tunnel, nearby Amtrak and commuter rail lines, or Baltimore-Washington International Airport, just a few miles to the northeast.
Gloria Berthold, 49, was walking from her home on nearby Old Lawyers Hill Road in Elkridge and feared the worst when she heard the deafening explosion.
"My first reaction was a bomb - more than a crash," Berthold said. "It didn't seem like an accident. It seemed like something more serious."
Outside her house, Berthold said she could see flames shooting as high as 100 feet into the air. Smoke was everywhere and the fumes, "closed up your throat - it was hard to breathe."
The explosion was heard even by Billie Ann Blakely, a 19-year-old resident of the Avalon section of Baltimore County who went deaf in 2002 and obtained a device last August that restored part of her hearing.
"All of a sudden I could hear a really loud ka-boom. Then it started popping and another boom hit," she said.
Firefighting crews from BWI and Howard and Baltimore counties rushed to the scene to find flames spreading as far as the brush on the southeast corner of the overpass' juncture with I-95, dozens of yards from the crash. Not sure what kind of fuel was involved, firefighters sprayed the blaze with white fire-retardant foam, leaving a ghostly, snow-like cover over the grisly scene.
The fire was brought under control after an hour, leaving only the hulks of two trucks and a car strewn across the road and bathed in police spotlights.
By 6 p.m., firefighters had finished their work and investigators in chemical suits began searching for the cause of the fiery wreck. Authorities said it appeared that the tanker toppled from the overpass without interference from any other vehicles.
Law enforcement officials had two possible theories: that the tanker's driver had suffered a sudden illness or that fuel in a half-full tanker had sloshed to one side, tipping the truck over a 3-foot barrier. Officials said they had recovered a license plate from the truck showing that it was registered outside Maryland but all identifying paperwork had been burned.
Federal investigations
The National Transportation Safety Board, which investigates major traffic accidents, said it sent a seven-person team to the crash site.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, which is part of the U.S. Department of Transportation and regulates the trucking industry, also had an investigator on the scene last night, said spokesman Andy Beck.
Alan Williams, hazardous materials program director for the Maryland Department of the Environment, said drivers of fuel tankers must have commercial drivers licenses and certification that they have been trained in handling hazardous materials. The state police and MDE both "routinely" inspect the trucks, he said.
There are probably hundreds of fuel tankers on area roads every day, Williams said, and MDE responds to three or four hazardous materials accidents involving them each year. "Given the [number] of trucks and hours that these trucks are on the road, it's really an excellent safety record."
Other investigators were at the scene starting the hard work of identifying victims. Chief Medical Examiner David Fowler said he had two teams at the scene but it could take a few days to confirm the identities of all victims.
Investigators would use dental records, fingerprints or X-rays to identify remains that were badly burned, said Fowler.
"We go a long time before we say we can't identify a person," he said. "Even a single tooth can be enough."
Investigators were still trying to determine last night what the tanker was carrying, but MDE spokesman Richard McIntire said the nature of the fire was consistent with gasoline.
No firefighters, residents or drivers trapped on the highway suffered any obvious ill effects from the fire's thick black smoke, said Jeff Welsh, another MDE spokesman. A spokesman for BWI said the thick smoke posed no visibility problems for pilots and neither takeoffs nor landings were delayed by it.
Michael Sharon, chief of MDE's emergency response division, said most of the fuel burned up in the initial explosion, but some did go into a storm drain in adjoining Patapsco State Park. Crews were expected to clean up that area overnight.
Officials from MDE and the Department of Natural Resources were also monitoring Rockburn Branch, a creek 120 yards away, and the Patapsco River, about 400 yards away, to make sure no fuel reached them.
Craig Childres, general manager of A & A Environmental, a private contractor often hired by the state to clean up after chemical accidents, said the retardant foam would be pressure-washed away and then collected in vacuum trucks. The non-hazardous foam is made of animal blood and binds with oxygen to smother fire.
As news of the accident spread, many Maryland residents were faced with a more immediate concern: worrying about family members who were still on the road. With no victim identifications available, and with thousands of I-95 motorists delayed by hours, many waiting at home were left to worry that they might have lost someone.
One of those stranded was Alvin Smith, a truck driver whose trip had originated in Dallas. He was headed north on I-95 for Johnstown, N.Y., when he got caught in the snarled traffic. He waited about 1 1/2 hours before he could make a detour onto Route 100 and Interstate 97.
Last night, he'd made it only as far as the Maryland House rest stop near Aberdeen.
"I'll have to stop two hours early tonight, and I won't get there," he said of his freight run north. "I've already called in."
