Maryland Car Accident Attorney Blog
A head-on traffic collision on U.S. Route 220 sent four people to the hospital in Allegany County near Cresaptown, Maryland. According to news reports, the wreck occurred just before 9am on a Tuesday morning during rush hour. Information from the Allegany County Bureau of Police indicated that a 24-year-old out-of-state man driving a 1998 Chevrolet Cavalier crossed the center line, striking an oncoming pickup truck in the southbound lane.
The Chevy driver, Christopher Stouffer, was injured in the accident along with his two passengers and another driver in a third vehicle. Head-on motor vehicle collisions can cause serious injuries, such as head, neck and brain trauma. In many cases, depending on the speeds involved, such a car crash can be fatal to both driver and passengers. In this case, all involved were lucky to have survived the wreck without sustaining life-threatening injuries.
Based on news reports the driver of the pickup truck, Aaron Brooke Gray of Cumberland, MD, lost control of his vehicle, which subsequently hit a 2003 Toyota sedan being driven northbound by 57-year-old Cynthia Erzkus, also of Cumberland. Some of the victims were temporarily trapped in their vehicles before rescue crews from the Bowling Green and Rawlings volunteer fire departments extricated them.
Each of the victims was then taken by separate ambulance to the Western Maryland Regional Medical Center that morning. Transport of the injured was handles by the Cresaptown Volunteer Fire Department, LaVale Rescue Squad and Cumberland Fire Department.
Stouffer, who resides in West Virginia, was charged by police with failure to drive right of center. He and two passengers were taken to the hospital by ambulance. Erzkus was taken to the hospital but her passenger was not injured. None of the injuries appeared to be life-threatening, police said.
Head-on U.S. 220 crash injures 4, Times-News.com, January 19, 2010