One dead, another hurt in College Park crash

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

One dead, another hurt in College Park crash

Driver of tractor-trailer had suspended out-of-state license

by Dennis Carter | Staff Writer

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A Prince George’s man was killed in a four-vehicle crash on the Outerloop of the Beltway near the College Park exit around 11 p.m. Monday, shutting down the Beltway for more than six hours.

Jose Marcos Portillo Villalta, 33, of Riverdale, was pinned underneath a tractor-trailer after the driver slammed another vehicle into a jersey wall, according to Maryland State Police reports.

The crash happened after an Acura Integra driven by Francisco Nelson Saravia slowed down in the second lane from the right.

As his car experienced mechanical troubles, Saravia, a Virginia resident, turned on his flashers. The tractor-trailer, driven by Roger Scofield, 54, who had just made a banana shipment in Virginia, did not slow down in time, hitting Marco Saint Aylmer Hall’s Honda Accord and barreling into Villalta’s Nissan Altima, according to police.

Hall, who sustained life-threatening injuries, was taken by helicopter to Baltimore’s Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center.

Scofield, whose 2005 Frieghtliner was registered to B.K. Trucking, Inc., in Newfield, N.J., was charged with driving with a suspended out-of-state license, reckless driving, negligent driving and failure to control speed to avoid a collision. Other charges would be determined after investigators examine the collision reconstruction report.

State Police are searching for a witness to the crash. Anyone with information about the collision should call the State Police College Park barracks at 301-345-3101.