A 77-year-old man was killed and his 97-year-old father-in-law is seriously hurt after a driver rear-ended them on the Capital Beltway in Landover, Maryland, on Sunday, the family says. The driver was speeding, according to state police.
Dannell Schwartz was heading to Florida with his wife and her father when the driver of a Ford Mustang crashed into them in southbound traffic at about 4:30 p.m.
Schwartz’s wife, Suzi Romanik, told News4 she saw the car in her rearview mirror as she drove.
“I saw him weaving on the highway, and I said, ‘Oh, that’s not good.’ But he pulled behind another car, and I said, ‘Oh, I’m safe for now,’” Romanik recalled.
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But the family wasn’t safe. The Mustang driver crashed into the back of their Kia Sedona minivan. Romanik described the violent impact.
“Oh my god what is that? And now we’re spinning! And it stops, and people are rushing towards us,” she said.
A second car also was hit, and one of the vehicles burst into flames, sending dark smoke over the highway.
Passersby pulled the family out of the minivan, with Schwartz in the front passenger seat and Romanik’s father in the back seat.
Romanik remembered shouting for help.
“I’m yelling, ‘Where are the ambulances? Where are the ambulances?’ And somebody’s doing CPR on him, and my dad, who is 97, is propped up against the concrete,” she said.
“This guy hit us so hard that when I got out of the car, I didn’t have shoes on. I mean, my shoes just came off my feet,” she said.
All three members of the family were taken to UM Capital Region Medical Center. Schwartz did not survive. The driver of the Mustang, whose name was not released, was taken to a MedStar hospital. Romanik’s father was still hospitalized with severe injuries as of Monday night.
The family’s two dogs were with them at the time of the crash. One of the dogs was grabbed by good Samaritans who stopped to help. The other dog ran away and was later found in the woods. But the dogs’ return can only provide so much relief.
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“He did a horrible thing to us,” Romanik said about the driver who hit them. “Changed our lives. In one second, he changed our lives.”
Maryland State Police said the crash investigation is ongoing.
