Anne Arundel police said motorists had plenty of time to notice Interstate 97 was closed prior to a deadly crash Friday that killed a woman and her newly delivered child.
“The clear visibility and the conditions of the roadway allowed oncoming traffic an almost one-mile line of sight to observe the flow of traffic, and allowed for traffic to safely come to a stop in the southbound lanes of Route 97,” county police said in a statement released Saturday.
Four people were injured in two separate crashes on Interstate 97 on Saturday and Sunday.
In Friday?s crash, Anne Arundel police said, about 45 vehicles had been stopped for more than a minute when a tractor-trailer slammed into the back of a 2001 Dodge Caravan, sparking a six- vehicle chain reaction at about 11:30 a.m.
A passenger in the Caravan who was seven months pregnant, Maria Lizama-Sanchez, 31, of GlenBurnie, was taken to University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center. Doctors performed an emergency Caesarean section but the baby died at 12:30 p.m. after taking a few breaths, police said.
The mother died of her injuries about 90 minutes later, police said.
Her husband, Walter Sanchez, 36, was taken to Shock Trauma with serious injuries; he was treated and released later that day.
Maryland State Police said no charges have been filed against Lamoyan Lee, a 34-year-old Essex man who was driving the tractor-trailer, as the investigation is continuing.
Lee was treated at Baltimore Washington Medical Center for minor injuries, as were four other people.
Anne Arundel police said they had closed the ramp from Route 100 westbound to southbound I-97, as well as all southbound lanes of 1-97, so the funeral procession for the father of an Anne Arundel police officer could safely merge onto the highway toward the Maryland Veterans Cemetery in Crownsville. Anne Arundel assisted more than 150 funeral processions in the past year on a case-by-case basis, officials said.
On Sunday morning, a man fell asleep behind the wheel of a van on I-97 and struck a guardrail just north of Route 648, police and fire officials said. The van overturned, and one person was ejected.
One man was trapped in the vehicle for an hour before Anne Arundel firefighters could free him.
A 35-year-old male passenger was taken to Shock Trauma via helicopter, while two others were taken to the same hospital by ambulance.
The driver, a 57-year-old man, was taken to Harbor Medical Center with minor injuries.
Anne Arundel fire officials also reported a Saturday morning motorcycle crash on I-97 that sent the driver to the hospital with serious injuries.
