to the hospital via ambulance. Accord-
ing to sources, the victim was hospi-
talized with injuries not believed to be
life threatening.
and Risk Manager Eric Lagstrom
has been notified. Coastal Highway
is officially Maryland Route 528, a
state-owned highway. Late last
week, a State Highway Administra-
tion (SHA) spokesman said a check
of scheduled road projects revealed
no active construction slated for
Coastal Highway last Thursday. In
fact, SHA is not permitted to do any
work on Coastal Highway between
Memorial Day and Labor Day, un-
less it is an emergency.
partment had been assisting a sub-
contractor with the installation of
water meters up and down the high-
way throughout the spring and
crews were working in the area of
the accident last Thursday. Although
he said he couldn't get into the
specifics and the investigation is on-
going, witness reports collected at
the scene provided more details
about the events leading up to the
crash.
do know is that the manhole cover
became dislodged when another
vehicle ran over just before the vic-
on its edge, like a coin might in a
smaller glass, and she hit it head
on. From the damage to the vehicle,
one can see a v-shaped impact
where she hit the manhole cover. A
witness who was driving behind the
victim said he didn't see anything
until the car in front of him flipped."
the highway open. The working the-
ory late last week was that the vic-
tim's front tire hit the open manhole,
causing the vehicle to flip from its
front end onto its roof. However,
Lagstrom said the manhole cover
was ajar after becoming dislodged.
"Frankly, I don't know what would
have been worse, hitting the dis-
lodged manhole cover or hitting an
open hole around two feet in diame-
ter."
when they were finished their proj-
ect, but it became dislodged when
another vehicle drove over it.
aren't locked down or fastened in
any way," he said. "This is just one
of those unfortunate incidents. Why
it popped up like it did we don't
know. I talked to some of our guys
who have been here for 35 years
and they don't recall it ever happen-
ing before."