Workers killed in Baltimore Beltway crash honored a year later through memories, policy

Life with Sybil DiMaggio was, in a nutshell, energetic.

Days would start with music blasting in the house — the construction inspector and her husband, George Durm, bonded over their love for the rock band 311 — and would continue with gardening and canning activities, her husband said.

She was “outdoorsy” with her personal and professional life, doing mosquito control and municipal jobs for a while before continuing to her work on the highway. But she “wasn’t out there to swing the hammer,” she rather preferred to use her brain, Durm said.

Friday will be a year since DiMaggio was killed on the job along with five employees of Concrete General — Rolando “Chi Chi” Ruiz, brothers Carlos Orlando Villatoro Escobar and Jose Armando “Pancho” Escobar, Mahlon “Stick” Simmons II, the site’s superintendent, and his son Mahlon “MJ” Simmons III, the foreman. In the year since, investigations have probed safety issues at work zones, and state leaders have sought to address speed on Interstate 695 and other worker hazards.

Family and friends have been “super supportive” of Durm over the difficult past year, during which he said he’s been “doing my best, all things considered.” But talking about the sudden loss — a chain of events that killed six workers within seconds — is getting tiring.

Over the past year, there have been the tokens of honor for the workers, like a plaque at a Silver Spring apartment building dedicated in memory of “THE MEN WHO BUILT THIS WALL”: the Escobar brothers, Ruiz, and the younger Simmons.

There have also been several investigations — including a criminal probe leading to the indictments of the two drivers involved, and an occupational safety investigation that led to citations against the State Highway Administration as well as the construction project’s contractor, Concrete General, for signage-related violations. Another investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board is ongoing.

The six highway workers were killed instantly after two speeding vehicles collided, sending an Acura into a 156-foot opening in concrete barriers that protected the median work zone from traffic on the Baltimore Beltway that had been left open, according to the Maryland Occupational Safety and Health report on the crash. Investigators did not cite the construction company or the highway administration for any violations directly related to the crash, but encouraged them to take steps to reduce workers’ exposure to hazards in roadway work zones.

Attorneys for DiMaggio’s estate pointed to the large gap — state investigators wrote that they could not determine the rationale for its size — and other “known issues” in the work zone that were left unaddressed at the Woodlawn site as contributing factors. The crash “should not have been able to have happened,” attorney Michael Belsky said.

In the past year, there have also been state government meetings to develop new work zone practices, and legislation aiming to protect construction workers from another day like March 22, 2023.

A committee headed by Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller issued a series of recommendations last year for work zone safety in the state, with most portions focusing on changing driver behaviors. The State Highway Administration is developing a revamped temporary traffic control program based on the recommendations, and “hope[s] to implement it by the end of 2024,” said M. Daniel Allman, a spokesperson for the agency. The U.S. Department of Transportation has awarded a $1.6 million grant to the State Highway Administration to study work zone speed data using drone technology, the state agency said Thursday.

Baltimore County’s state delegation has been pushing a bill that would authorize up to 16 speed cameras to be installed on the Beltway, though only four would be operational at a time. The bill, which would direct the speed camera revenue to roadway and safety improvements to I-695, passed the Senate last week, and is set to be heard in the House of Delegates next month.

Meanwhile, Miller has been leading a legislative push with a bill to expand and strengthen Maryland’s speed camera program for work zones.

Miller’s bill, a product of the Work Zone Safety Work Group established by Gov. Wes Moore following last year’s deadly crash, would double the fine for drivers captured traveling at more than 12 mph over a construction zone’s speed limit and direct revenue to highway and work zone safety.

The House passed a slightly stripped-down version of Miller’s Maryland Road Worker Protection Act last week, eliminating the bill’s original condition that imposed a $290 fine for a first-time offense and penalties going up to $1,000 for third-time violators within the same year — the version passed by the House caps at a $250 fine for third and subsequent offenses.

Legislators also added a requirement that the cameras be accompanied by a sign that reads drivers’ speeds back to them, and cut out a provision that would have allowed the speed cameras to run unmanned. The State Highway Administration currently has a $32.7 million, five-year contract with Conduent, a contractor that provides the camera equipment and staff, vehicles, and back office support, and is paid per each eight-hour shift their employees man cameras, according to the agency.

The speed camera bill has not been voted out of committee in the Senate.

Supporters of the legislation, including AAA Mid-Atlantic and several construction trade groups, point to stiffer penalties against speeders as the “culture change” needed to protect highway construction workers. So far, it’s proved successful — 2019 evaluation of the program found that the number of vehicles traveling above the 12 mph threshold had reduced by 90% since Maryland’s work zone speed camera program, SafeZones, launched in 2010.

Concrete General’s general manager, Michael Higgins, spoke about the crash while the bill was being debated by a House committee, joined by family members of the Simmons father-son duo.

“Over 100 years of construction experience was lost … in a matter of seconds on a Wednesday afternoon at 1 p.m.,” Higgins said, noting the crash “changed our company, changed the victims’ families forever,” and calling the speed camera bill a “step in the right direction” for road worker protection.

“I ask that you do not forget what happened on March 22, 2023,” he said.

The project the crew was working on that day, which aims to turn sections of the Beltway’s shoulders into temporary lanes to be used during peak hours, entered its third phase earlier this week. While crews work in the median of the Beltway between White Marsh Boulevard and the Lillian Holt Drive overpass west of Interstate 95 during daytime hours, drivers can expect congestion from left-lane closures and reduced speed limits. Speed cameras will also be in place.

Those measures were not in place a year ago at the work zone, located on one of the busiest sections of the Beltway.

The safety-minded changes are “obviously good,” said Catie Dickinson, an attorney representing DiMaggio’s estate along with Belsky, though they are coming too late.

“Those cars did not get into the construction area on their speed alone,” Belsky said.

Lisa Lea, the driver of the Acura, is awaiting trial on manslaughter charges alleging she was under the influence and traveling at over 110 mph that day when her car collided with a Volkswagen operated by Melachi Brown, who has pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing. Lea suffered serious injuries in the crash; Brown was uninjured.