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One person died on March 31, when two trucks collided along Interstate 95 near Perryville. The driver of a tractor-trailer died when his truck caught on fire after the collision. Details of the fatal Maryland truck accident are as follows:
One man died when his tractor-trailer collided with a dump truck while both vehicles were attempting to merge onto I-95. The accident occurred at 11:15 a.m. Monday, March 31. A dump truck driver, who has been identified as 59-year-old Gerald Harrington Daniel Jr., was on northbound Route 222 attempting to merge onto northbound I-95. Directly behind him was 46-year-old John Franklin Heaton, who was driving a tractor-trailer and was also attempting to merge onto the interstate.
According to a preliminary Maryland State Police investigation, Daniel slowed down to yield to vehicles that were already on the interstate before completing the merge. Investigators believe that Heaton failed to slow down accordingly and crashed into the back of the dump truck. The impact of the crash caused the tractor-trailer’s load to shift forward into the truck’s cab. At the time Heaton was carrying nine concrete barriers.
The tractor-trailer then crashed into the right guardrail and caught on fire—with Heaton trapped inside the truck’s cab. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Daniel was uninjured in the crash and did not require an ambulance.
Police conducted an on-scene investigation of the crash. Tow trucks arrived to clear the crash area. In all, the northbound lanes of the interstate were closed for half an hour and the entrance ramp from northbound Route 222 was closed for another two hours.
We express our sympathies to the family of Mr. Heaton in their time of grief.