MDTA Police Make Arrest
After Sunday Morning Crash Injures Officer
Driver Charged with DUI After Vehicle Strikes MDTA Officer Conducting a Traffic Stop
BALTIMORE, MD (April 5, 2021) – Maryland Transportation Authority (MDTA) Police have arrested and charged a Woodlawn man with driving under the influence after an early Sunday morning crash that seriously injured an MDTA Police Officer.
Shortly after 3 a.m. Sunday, an MDTA Police Officer stopped a vehicle for a traffic violation on southbound I-95 near Exit 50 (Caton Avenue). At approximately 3:10 a.m., as the officer spoke with the occupants of the stopped vehicle, a black Mercedes sedan driven by 28-year-old Rodney I. Berger struck both the officer and the stopped vehicle. The MDTA Police Officer was transported to the R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center with serious but non-life-threatening injuries. Neither Berger nor the occupants of the stopped vehicle were injured.
After a preliminary investigation, MDTA Police Officers took Berger into custody without incident. He was charged with driving under the influence and other charges.
The crash is still under investigation by the MDTA Police Collision Reconstruction Unit. Anyone with information is asked to call MDTA Police at 410-537-1209.
The MDTA Police remind motorists of Maryland’s “Move Over” law, which requires drivers approaching from the rear of an emergency vehicle with its visual signals activated to, if possible, make a lane change into a lane not immediately adjacent to the emergency vehicle. If moving to another lane is not possible or is unsafe, the law requires drivers to slow down when passing the stopped vehicle.
Persons charged with a crime are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
The Maryland Transportation Authority Police, a nationally accredited force, is the seventh-largest law enforcement agency in the State with more than 600 sworn and civilian law enforcement professionals. MDTA Police Officers provide law enforcement services at the MDTA’s highways, bridges and tunnels, at BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport and at the Port of Baltimore.