An old Ford LTD Crown Victoria came barreling across the asphalt at high speed as reporters and state officials waited in the parking lot of a Northwest Baltimore shopping center for Gov. Martin O?Malley to arrive for a news conference.
The car roared by, tore up an embankment and went airborne as it crossed the six lanes of Wabash Avenue, ripping a hole in an iron fence and then smashing through a chain-link fence as it finally perched on the electrified third rail at the Baltimore Metro maintenance center.
No one was hurt, including the driver, Margarie Hall, 78, who walked away from the incident.
“I?m fine. I?m fine,” Hall told Mass Transit Administration workers Tuesday.
Two of them had turned off the power to the high-voltage rail. Paramedics and firefighters responded quickly but left without putting her in the ambulance.
“When I placed it in gear, it just took off,” Hall told reporters later.
“I couldn?t put on the brakes.”
Hall said she had gone to the market at Northwest Plaza for some food but didn?t buy anything and then got in her car, later losing control.
After the news conference, on Maryland?s new laws to stem the tide of foreclosures, Hall was still on the scene, and the governor went over to see her.
“I thank God I?m all right,” she told O?Malley.
“Somebody was looking out for you this morning,” O?Malley said.
Hall?s car had two bumper stickers on it: One was for Heaven 600, the Baltimore Gospel music station, and other said W.W.J.D. ? “What would Jesus do?” ? with the ancient Christian symbol of the fish.
