The six workers, including two brothers from El Salvador and a father and son, were pronounced dead after they were struck on Interstate 695 outside Baltimore, the authorities said.
Six highway workers, including two brothers from El Salvador and a father and son, were killed on a busy highway outside Baltimore on Wednesday when they were struck by a car that plowed into their work zone, the authorities said.
The crash took place at about 12:40 p.m., when the driver of an Acura tried to change lanes in the inner loop of Interstate 695, also known as the Baltimore Beltway, in Woodlawn, Md., in Baltimore County, the Maryland State Police said in a statement.
The State Police identified the driver as Lisa Adrienna Lea, 54, of Randallstown, Md. As Ms. Lea tried to move into the left lane, her car struck the “front corner panel” on the passenger side of a Volkswagen driven by Melachi Brown, 20, of Windsor Mill, Md., according to the police statement.
“Crash team investigators believe this caused the Acura to lose control and subsequently travel into the work zone,” the State Police said. It was not clear what led Ms. Lea to hit the Volkswagen.
Video footage of the crash, obtained and published online by The Baltimore Sun, shows the dark-colored Acura drifting into the highway’s left lane and making contact with the front of the white Volkswagen. The Acura then flips over into an active work zone on the left shoulder of the inner loop of Interstate 695.
Video from WBAL-TV of the aftermath of the crash showed the overturned Acura lying amid construction materials between two barriers in the center of the highway. Mr. Brown, who was not injured, stopped his car north of the crash scene after it became disabled, the State Police said.
The six workers, who were described as contractual workers, were pronounced dead at the scene, the State Police said. Ms. Lea was taken to the trauma center at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore, where she was being treated for her injuries on Thursday.
On Thursday, the State Police identified the six workers who were killed as: Rolando Ruiz, 46, of Laurel, Md.; Carlos Orlando Villatoro Escobar, 43, and Jose Armando Escobar, 52, both of Frederick, Md.; Mahlon Simmons III, 31, and Mahlon Simmons II, 52, both of Union Bridge, Md.; and Sybil Lee DiMaggio, 46, of Glen Burnie, Md.
The Simmonses were father and son, the police said. The Escobars were brothers from El Salvador who had years of experience as highway workers in Maryland, Cristian Escobar, the son of Jose Armando Escobar, said in an interview. Jose had been a highway worker for more than two decades, and his younger brother had been one for six years, Mr. Escobar said.
Mr. Escobar said the brothers worked for Concrete General, a highway construction company in Maryland, which did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on Thursday.
“Before anything, I want justice,” Mr. Escobar said in Spanish. “Not just for my family, but for the others. Someone has to pay for what they did.”
Any charges will depend on the outcome of the investigation, which is being conducted in consultation with the office of the Baltimore County state’s attorney, the authorities said. Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board are working with the Maryland State Police crash team on the investigation.
Cristian Escobar, whose family lives in Frederick, Md., said he had seen footage of the crash and noticed a lack of traffic on the road. “There was no need for what happened,” he said.
He described his father as a positive, hardworking man who loved to joke around. He said his father, who came to the U.S. in the 1990s, would often tell him: “As long as I have two good hands and two good feet, I always want to work.”
Mr. Escobar said his uncle, a father of two daughters and one son, was more reserved than his brother, and he cared deeply about his family.
Mr. Escobar said he had the sad duty of calling the two brothers’ parents in El Salvador to deliver the news.
“She didn’t believe it,” he said of his grandmother’s reaction on the phone. “Can you imagine? To tell a mother, ‘Your sons aren’t returning.’ It’s not easy.”
George Durm, the husband of another victim, Ms. DiMaggio, said in a brief interview that he wanted to make two things clear: that Ms. DiMaggio loved her job, which she had been doing for about eight years, and that “she was terrified of this job site.”
“She told me every day why she was afraid of it, but I wouldn’t know how to express that to you,” Mr. Durm said, adding: “She was scared, man. She was afraid of this site.”
He said he did not want to elaborate on exactly why she was fearful of the site where the crash occurred because he was unfamiliar with the technical explanations.
Ms. DiMaggio was working at the site on Wednesday for a construction company called KCI, which did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on Thursday.
She was described by her husband as a “ball of energy” who loved the rock band 311, hiking and spending afternoons tending to her garden.
“I don’t know where I’m supposed to pick up where she left off,” Mr. Durm said. “I don’t know what to do. I’m kind of lost.”
State and local leaders, who said they were monitoring the crash, expressed their condolences to the families of the highway workers.
On Twitter, Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland said, “My heart goes out to the victims and the families affected by the tragic crash.”
