Maryland Car Accident Attorney Blog
A 70-year-old man went to work on a maintenance project on northbound U.S. Route 13 in Princess Anne on Tuesday, April 28, 2026. Around 12:40 p.m., according to the Maryland State Police, another driver struck the rear of the marked Maryland Department of Transportation vehicle he was sitting in. He was pronounced dead at the scene by Somerset County EMS. The driver who hit him and her passenger were taken to a nearby hospital. State police closed northbound Route 13 at Revels Neck Road while their crash team worked the scene, and the investigation will be presented to the Somerset County State’s Attorney’s Office once it is complete.
These are the cases that should not be hard to talk about, and yet they happen with a numbing regularity. A worker in a clearly marked state vehicle, doing his job, in the middle of the day, was killed by a driver who, for reasons not yet fully explained, did not slow down or move over.
For families in Maryland who have lost someone in a similar crash — or who have a loved one currently recovering from one — there are practical questions that come up almost immediately. What does the law expect a driver to do when approaching a state vehicle stopped on the highway? Who can be held responsible? And how does a civil claim work when there is also a criminal investigation underway?
Maryland’s Move Over Law and What Drivers Owe to Roadway Workers
Maryland’s Move Over law applies to a wide range of stopped vehicles displaying warning lights, including state and local highway-maintenance vehicles. Drivers approaching such a vehicle are required to move over a lane when it is safe to do so, and to slow down when moving over is not possible. The duty exists for a reason. Workers in DOT trucks, tow operators, police officers at traffic stops, and emergency responders cannot do their jobs if drivers behind them are not paying attention.
A rear-end collision with a stopped, marked state vehicle on a highway is rarely an accident in the everyday sense of the word. It almost always points back to one of a small set of failures: distraction, impairment, fatigue, excessive speed, or following too closely. Those failures are not just unfortunate. Under Maryland law, they are negligence.
How Civil Liability Works Separately from Any Criminal Charges
A criminal investigation and a civil injury or wrongful death claim are two different proceedings, and they answer different questions. The criminal case asks whether a driver should be punished. The civil case asks whether the driver’s conduct caused harm and what compensation the family of the person killed, or the person injured, should receive.
A criminal charge is not required for a civil claim to move forward, and a civil claim is not stopped if charges are declined. The standards of proof are different. A driver who is never charged, or who is charged with a lesser offense, can still be held fully responsible in a civil courtroom for the injuries and losses caused.
In Maryland, surviving family members of a person killed in a roadway crash may be able to bring a wrongful death claim under Md. Code, Cts. & Jud. Proc. § 3-904. A separate survival action may also be available to recover damages the person experienced before death. These claims can include funeral and burial expenses, lost income and benefits the worker would have earned, and the loss of the relationship the family had with their loved one.
What Investigators Typically Look At in a Crash Like This
In any serious rear-end crash on a Maryland highway, the most important evidence often gets gathered in the hours and days right after the impact. Skid marks or the lack of them. Final rest positions. Damage patterns on both vehicles. Event data recorder downloads. Cell phone records. Toxicology results. Witness statements from anyone who was traveling near the scene.
The Maryland State Police crash team is specifically trained for this kind of reconstruction, and their report will eventually become a central piece of any civil case. But families do not have to wait for the police investigation to wrap up to start protecting their interests. Photographs, video, witness contact information, and copies of medical records can all be preserved early. So can claims against the at-fault driver’s insurance, and any applicable underinsured motorist coverage on the worker’s side.
Why These Cases Matter Beyond the One Family Involved
Maryland highway and road crews are out there every day. Patching pavement, replacing signs, plowing snow, marking lanes, responding to crashes. Every one of those workers has a family. Every one of them has a right to expect that drivers approaching a marked state vehicle will treat its presence as a warning, not a suggestion.
When a driver fails to do that, and someone is killed or seriously injured, civil accountability is one of the few tools left to make the loss visible — and to push the broader driving public to take Move Over and reduce-speed obligations seriously.
For nearly thirty years, Lebowitz & Mzhen Personal Injury Lawyers has stood with Maryland families after the kind of crash that should never have happened in the first place. The firm understands that a roadway worker’s death does not just leave behind a claim file — it leaves behind a wife, children, coworkers, and a community that watched a person leave for work and never come home. The firm investigates rear-end and Move Over violation cases with the seriousness they deserve, builds a record that does not let an at-fault driver hide behind a vague police statement, and pursues every layer of available coverage so that the family is not left arguing with insurers while they are still grieving.
Talk to a Maryland Crash Lawyer Who Understands Roadway Worker Cases
If your family is dealing with the loss of a loved one, or with serious injuries from a Maryland highway crash, Lebowitz & Mzhen Personal Injury Lawyers is here to listen and help. Call (800) 654-1949 or use the firm’s online contact form to set up a free, confidential consultation. There is no fee unless the firm recovers compensation for you, and there is no pressure — just a conversation about what happened and what your options look like from here.