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Dive brief:
- After pleading guilty to six counts of manslaughter in January, one of the drivers of the fatal crash on I-695 near Baltimore He was sentenced to 18 months in prison on March 28 last year, CBS News reported.
- Melachi Brown, 20, was traveling 121 mph on March 22, 2023, when he cut off Lisa Lea, who was traveling 108 mph, according to court documents. Lea’s car entered a work zone, killing six construction workers. His trial is scheduled for April.
- A Baltimore County judge sentenced Brown to 10 years in prison with all but three months suspended on each count. He will then serve probation for three years, during which time he will not be allowed to drive. The judge’s ruling aligns with the prosecutor’s recommendations.
Diving knowledge:
The six people who died in the accident were:
- Carlos Orlando Villatoro Escobar, 43.
- Jose Armando Escobar, 52.
- Sybil Lee Dimaggio, 46.
- Rolando Ruiz, 46.
- Mahlon Simmons II, 52.
- Mahlon Simmons III, 31.
After the accident, Maryland Governor Wes Moore created a task force to come up with safety updates for highway work zones. The group reported recommendations in November, CBS reported, to include more state troopers in road work zones and more on-site inspections.
The Associated General Contractors of America found more than half (55%) of respondents Highway contractors reported motor vehicle accidents in their work areas over the past year, in a May report. More often than not, motorcyclists are the ones injured or killed in these collisions, the AGC found.
An on-the-job accident grabbed headlines recently, when a teenage driver in Oklahoma allegedly fell asleep while driving and hit three construction workers on March 25. One of the workers, 19-year-old Jacob Matuszczak, was killed, according to WAFB9, while two others were injured.
