A two-vehicle crash involving a box truck shut down the eastbound lanes of I-70 in Howard County on Monday afternoon, sending two people to local trauma centers with injuries that officials have not yet detailed. Maryland State Police Waterloo Barrack troopers were called to the scene at I-70 near Morgan Station Road shortly before 4 p.m., and the eastbound lanes remained closed as the investigation continued.
According to FOX45 News, troopers responded to a report of a two-vehicle crash involving a box truck, and both occupants of the box truck were taken to hospitals for treatment. One of the two was transported by ambulance, while the other was flown out by the Maryland State Police Aviation Command. Neither the ages nor genders of the occupants have been released, and the extent of their injuries has not been made public. No other injuries were reported.
The Maryland Coordinated Highway Action Response Team logged the crash on its incident system at Mile Marker 75.0 on eastbound I-70, pinpointing the closure at Morgan Station Road in Howard County, per Maryland CHART. The cause of the crash remains under investigation, and it is not yet known when all eastbound lanes reopened to evening traffic.
State Medevac Crews Bring Trauma Care to the Scene
The helicopter that carried one of the injured occupants away from the Howard County crash belongs to a fleet of ten AgustaWestland AW-139 helicopters that the Maryland State Police Aviation Command flies out of seven bases across the state, providing round-the-clock medevac transport, search and rescue, and law enforcement support, according to the Maryland Department of State Police. Each aircraft carries two pilots and two state trooper paramedics. In fiscal year 2025, the Aviation Command treated 2,050 patients statewide, and motor vehicle collisions accounted for 747 of those transports — the single largest category of calls the unit answers, per data from the Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Services Systems.
Every one of those helicopters has carried whole blood on board since July 2023, allowing paramedics to perform field transfusions for critically injured trauma patients while en route to shock trauma centers, the state police department has said. Maryland was the first state in the country to launch a statewide prehospital whole blood medevac program. Air transports through the program come at no direct cost to patients, since operating expenses are covered through state motor vehicle registration fees rather than billed to those flown.
Howard County's I-70 Corridor Has Seen Repeated Shutdowns
Monday's crash is the latest in a string of disruptive incidents along I-70 in Howard County this year. Just eleven days earlier, on August 20, a tractor-trailer collision on the westbound side near US 29 spilled rendered beef fat across the highway and shut down multiple travel lanes, with cleanup crews further slowed by approaching rain, WUSA9 reported.
The corridor's history includes far more severe outcomes. In May 2025, a multi-truck crash on eastbound I-70 in Howard County killed a 38-year-old Texas driver after three tractor-trailers collided and scattered wooden roof trusses across the roadway, closing the eastbound lanes for eight hours. That investigation was led by the MSP Crash Team and Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Division, according to the Maryland Department of State Police. The Waterloo Barrack, which holds primary jurisdiction over major highway incidents on I-70 and I-95 in Howard County, also led the response to a separate double-fatal wrong-way crash on I-95 in the county.
Crash Fits Into County's Road Safety Push
Howard County officials have set targets under the county's Strategic Road Safety Plan to cut traffic crash fatality rates by 20 percent and serious injury rates by 19 percent per 100 million vehicle miles traveled by 2025, according to Howard County Government. Highway crashes remain a leading cause of severe injury across the county's travel corridors under that plan.
The numbers reflect a statewide pattern as well. Maryland averages more than 107,000 motor vehicle collisions each year, resulting in over 30,000 injury collisions and more than 500 fatalities annually, per the Maryland Highway Safety Office. The state recorded 41,538 collision-related injuries in 2024 alone. Commercial truck crashes on interstates like I-70 and I-95 in Howard County continue to require close coordination between Waterloo Barrack troopers, CHART traffic managers, and the MSP Aviation Command whenever lanes must be shut down for extended cleanup and investigation.
