Maryland Car Accident Attorney Blog

Why Enhanced Underinsured Motorist Coverage Changes What a Maryland Claim Is Worth

August 31, 2026 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Last updated August 21, 2026 · Reviewed by Vadim A. Mzhen

Maryland law requires auto insurers to offer two versions of the coverage that protects a driver when the person who caused a crash carries too little insurance, and the two versions pay very differently. One is reduced by whatever the at-fault driver’s insurer hands over. The other is not. Nothing about the crash itself changes between them, only the paperwork signed when the policy was bought.

Standard uninsured motorist coverage under Md. Code, Ins. § 19-509 is offset by the amount paid out of the at-fault driver’s exhausted liability policy. Enhanced underinsured motorist coverage under § 19-509.1 carries no such offset, so it pays on top of that recovery instead of absorbing it. On identical facts, that one difference can change what a claim is worth by the entire value of the other driver’s policy.

Which of the two an injured driver actually bought is one of the first things worth checking in a Maryland car accident claim, particularly where the available liability limits fell well short of the medical bills. Lebowitz & Mzhen Personal Injury Lawyers raises the question early for that reason.

Six Crashes on the Beltway in a Single Morning

July 30, 2026 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Last updated July 13, 2026 · Reviewed by the attorneys at Lebowitz & Mzhen

On the morning of July 7, 2026, the inner loop of the Capital Beltway came apart in a matter of minutes. As WJLA reported, Maryland State Police responded to six separate crashes on I-495 in Montgomery County between 4:50 and 6:15 a.m., and five people were taken to area hospitals. Four of the crashes happened in the same stretch near Connecticut Avenue. For anyone who drives the Beltway at rush hour, the pattern is familiar: traffic bunches up, one driver brakes late, and the damage ripples backward through the lane.

How One Slowdown Turns Into Six Crashes

Head-On Collisions Are Still Among the Deadliest Crashes on Maryland Highways

June 29, 2026 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

In mid-June 2026, Maryland State Police reported that a 19-year-old man died after a head-on collision in Charles County. Few crashes leave less room for survival than two vehicles meeting front to front, and the loss of someone so young shows how quickly a single wrong moment on the road can end a life.

The Destructive Force of a Head-On Impact

When two vehicles strike head-on, the speed of each one adds to the force of the collision. A crash between cars traveling 50 miles per hour apiece delivers forces closer to a 100-mile-per-hour impact into the small space where the driver and front passenger sit. That energy has nowhere to go but into the occupants. Seatbelts and airbags reduce the harm, yet they were never built to fully absorb a direct frontal strike at highway speed. Survivors of head-on crashes often face traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord damage, crushed legs and pelvises, internal bleeding, and chest trauma, the kinds of injuries that mean months of treatment and a recovery that is never fully complete.

How Head-On Crashes Happen on Maryland Roads

Most frontal collisions trace back to a driver leaving their lane. Impaired driving remains one of the leading reasons a car drifts across a center line or enters a divided highway in the wrong direction. Fatigue, a glance down at a phone, and excessive speed on two-lane rural routes all play a part. Wrong-way entries onto highways are especially deadly because both drivers are moving fast and neither one expects the other. Maryland’s mix of rural two-lane roads in the southern and western counties and high-speed interstates around Baltimore and Washington creates exactly the conditions where a momentary lapse becomes a fatal crossing.

What Single-Vehicle Accidents Really Mean for Maryland Victims

May 28, 2026 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

If you were a passenger in a run-off-road crash, or if your family lost someone in one, the early “single-vehicle” label on a police report is rarely the full story. Here is what you should know.

The first days of May were brutal on Maryland roads. In a stretch that local news summed up as three fatal crashes in three days, families across the Baltimore and Washington suburbs were forced to absorb loss after loss. One of those crashes happened on a Friday night in Cockeysville, where a car traveling on Poplar Hill Road left the roadway and struck a tree. An 18-year-old died. Three other teenagers were hurt. Police called it a single-vehicle crash and said the circumstances were still under investigation.

If you are reading this because someone you love was in a wreck like that, the phrase “single-vehicle crash” can feel like a closed door. It sounds final. One car, one driver, nothing more to ask. But for the people left behind, and especially for injured passengers, that early label is often the start of the questions, not the answer to them.

Think about who is actually hurt when a car runs off the road. In a crash like the one in Cockeysville, the people most seriously injured can include passengers who had no control over the vehicle at all. If you were a passenger in a friend’s or family member’s car, you still have the right to ask how the crash happened and whether someone’s negligence caused your injuries. That can include the driver of the car you were in, but it does not have to stop there.

Maryland Highway Worker Killed on Route 13 While Sitting in a Marked MDOT Vehicle

April 30, 2026 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

A 70-year-old man went to work on a maintenance project on northbound U.S. Route 13 in Princess Anne on Tuesday, April 28, 2026. Around 12:40 p.m., according to the Maryland State Police, another driver struck the rear of the marked Maryland Department of Transportation vehicle he was sitting in. He was pronounced dead at the scene by Somerset County EMS. The driver who hit him and her passenger were taken to a nearby hospital. State police closed northbound Route 13 at Revels Neck Road while their crash team worked the scene, and the investigation will be presented to the Somerset County State’s Attorney’s Office once it is complete.

These are the cases that should not be hard to talk about, and yet they happen with a numbing regularity. A worker in a clearly marked state vehicle, doing his job, in the middle of the day, was killed by a driver who, for reasons not yet fully explained, did not slow down or move over.

For families in Maryland who have lost someone in a similar crash — or who have a loved one currently recovering from one — there are practical questions that come up almost immediately. What does the law expect a driver to do when approaching a state vehicle stopped on the highway? Who can be held responsible? And how does a civil claim work when there is also a criminal investigation underway?

When Driver Assist Fails After a Serious Crash

March 28, 2026 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Ford’s BlueCruise system is back in the national spotlight after federal investigators scheduled a public hearing on two fatal 2024 crashes involving 2022 Ford Mustang Mach-E vehicles operating in BlueCruise mode. According to the NTSB, both crashes involved the Ford vehicles striking stationary vehicles at highway speeds, and Reuters reported that no braking or steering input was detected before impact in either event.

That matters because BlueCruise is marketed as a hands-free driver assistance system, not a self-driving system. Even so, the real-world question after a violent crash is rarely as simple as “the driver should have paid more attention.” A serious injury case can raise harder questions about system design, driver monitoring, warnings, foreseeable misuse, and whether the technology performed the way a reasonable consumer would expect.

For Maryland families, this is the kind of story worth watching because more vehicles on local roads now come equipped with partial automation. Systems like BlueCruise can change how a crash is investigated. Electronic data, manufacturer instructions, software behavior, onboard alerts, and event timing may all become central evidence in a case that might once have looked like an ordinary rear-end collision.

Car Accident in Prince George’s County, Maryland: What to Do and How to Protect Your Claim

February 24, 2026 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

A car accident in Prince George’s County can leave you dealing with injuries, vehicle damage, and an insurance company that is already working to limit what it pays. Maryland law gives injured drivers and passengers the right to pursue compensation for medical bills, lost income, and pain and suffering — but the steps you take in the hours and days after the crash directly affect the strength of your case. Lebowitz & Mzhen Personal Injury Lawyers has recovered over $90 million for clients injured in collisions across Maryland, including crashes along the Capital Beltway, Route 301, and the Baltimore-Washington Parkway in Prince George’s County.

What Should You Do After a Car Accident in Prince George’s County?

The actions you take at the scene and in the days that follow create the foundation of your injury claim. Missing even one step can give the insurance company room to dispute your damages.

Waldorf, MD Crash With Multiple Extrications Injures Four Drivers and Passengers

January 30, 2026 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

When a crash is severe enough that firefighters have to cut people out of vehicles, everything gets heavy at once. A normal night turns into ambulance rides, worried calls, missed work, and paperwork that shows up before you even feel steady again. Reports out of Waldorf describe an overnight collision that left multiple people trapped and injured, with four taken to hospitals. Families in this spot usually want the same first answer: how fault gets sorted out and how insurance is supposed to cover the damage.

Maryland also adds a tough wrinkle. Insurance companies often look for any argument that the injured person shares blame, and that can block compensation. Staying calm and keeping good records early can make a real difference later, especially when pain and treatment do not follow a neat timeline.

What The Early Reports Say Happened In Waldorf

Wrong-Way DUI Crash On I-95 In Howard County Claims Two Lives

December 6, 2025 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Wrong-way crashes tend to create a certain kind of shock for families, because the collision itself often feels senseless. In the early Sunday morning crash on I-95 near MD 216 in Howard County, Maryland State Police reported that a Toyota traveling the wrong direction struck a Chrysler head-on, leading to two deaths and two people with serious injuries. With a report that alcohol may have played a role, many people immediately wonder how responsibility gets evaluated and which insurance coverage actually pays.

What The Initial Police Information Suggests About Fault

Maryland State Police described the Toyota as traveling southbound in the northbound lanes before the head-on impact. When a driver enters an interstate in the wrong direction, liability often points strongly in that direction, especially when impairment is part of the investigation. Police also reported criminal charges against the Toyota driver that include counts tied to impaired driving and deaths caused by driving conduct.
Even when fault appears clear, a civil claim still runs on evidence. Investigators and insurers generally look at physical roadway signs, debris fields, vehicle damage, event data recorders, surveillance footage if any exists near ramps, and witness accounts. Troopers also reported that the crash involved multiple impacts and required a lengthy response, which often means more documentation, more reconstruction work, and a longer timeline before a final investigative file is complete.

Maryland Car Crash Claims After Smith v. Sheehan And Pre-Impact Fright Damages

November 22, 2025 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Maryland’s appellate court recently clarified that in some car accident cases, you can recover for the fear you feel in the seconds before a second collision, not just for the physical impact itself. In Smith v. Sheehan, the court confirmed that “pre-impact fright” is a valid category of non-economic damages when supported by evidence, including objective signs of emotional distress. This ruling can increase the compensation available in serious Maryland car crash claims, especially multi-impact collisions.

If you lived through a terrifying sequence where your vehicle spun, slid, or headed toward another impact, that emotional experience may be compensable in addition to your physical injuries. Understanding how the court views pre-impact fright helps you and your lawyer build a more substantial claim from the start.

How Smith v. Sheehan Changed The Conversation About Fear During A Crash

In Smith v. Sheehan, a driver in Baltimore County felt a violent rear-end impact that sent her car spinning into a guardrail. She testified that after the first hit, she screamed, prayed, and believed she might die before the second impact. The trial judge refused to give a jury instruction on pre-impact fright, reasoning that the doctrine only applied before the first impact, which she did not see coming. The jury awarded modest non-economic damages, and the plaintiff appealed.