Eleven people were taken to hospitals Sunday morning after a passenger van crossed three lanes of traffic, struck a tractor-trailer, and flipped over on the Baltimore Beltway near Interstate 70 in Woodlawn. Maryland State Police said troopers were called to the scene around 8:11 a.m., and no other injuries beyond those 11 hospitalizations had been reported as of the department’s update.
According to WBAL NewsRadio, a preliminary investigation indicated the van crossed three lanes of I-695 in an attempt to make the I-70 exit before the collision sent it overturning onto the roadway. State police said the investigation into the crash remains ongoing, and it was not immediately clear whether the tractor-trailer driver was hurt or what led the van to attempt the sudden lane change.
A Notoriously Busy Interchange
The crash unfolded at one of Maryland’s most heavily traveled highway junctions. The interchange connecting I-695 and I-70 in Woodlawn, originally built in the 1960s as the “Triple Bridges” gateway linking Baltimore to western Maryland, carries close to 180,000 vehicles a day on the Beltway below, according to the Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration. That volume, combined with sudden lane changes near exit ramps, has made the stretch a recurring flashpoint for serious crashes.
The corridor is also in the middle of a major infrastructure overhaul. MDOT SHA has been converting median shoulders along I-695 between I-70 and MD 43 into travel lanes during peak rush hours, a project that has required temporary lane shifts and reduced speed limits through active work zones. Just months earlier, on March 31, a separate two-vehicle collision on I-695 between Baltimore National Pike and I-70 northbound blocked three lanes and caused extensive backups, a pattern WBAL NewsRadio has also documented on this same connector.
Why Loaded Passenger Vans Are Especially Vulnerable
Sunday’s crash also underscores a well-documented safety concern with multi-passenger vans. Research from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration shows that 15-passenger vans carrying 10 or more occupants have a single-vehicle rollover rate nearly three times higher than when carrying fewer than five passengers, because added weight raises the vehicle’s center of gravity and reduces handling stability during abrupt maneuvers…