Maryland woman sentenced to 30 years for deadly I-695 work zone crash
A Maryland woman was sentenced to 30 years in prison Friday in connection with a crash on I-695 in Baltimore County that left six people dead in 2023, according to court officials.
In November 2025, Lisa Lea pleaded guilty to six counts of vehicular manslaughter.
Details of the deadly I-695 crash
Lea was driving over 100 mph when she collided with another driver in March 2023, according to charging documents. Both cars crashed into a work zone set up along I-695.
Six construction workers were killed in the crash.
A National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) report revealed that Lea was moving across three lanes of traffic when she hit the second car. She had delta-9 THC in her system and cyclobenzaprine, a medication that may have impaired her ability to drive.
Medical records failed to confirm earlier claims that Lea had a history of seizures and did not take her medication before the crash, and a final NTSB report found no indication of a sudden medical event.
The driver in the second car, Malachi Brown, was also speeding, court records showed. He pleaded guilty to negligent manslaughter and was sentenced to 18 months in prison. In June 2024, Brown was released early and ordered to serve home detention.
Addressing work zone safety after crash
After the crash, the family of one of the construction workers sued the state of Maryland and a contracting company, claiming they failed to create a safe work zone. The lawsuit also cites Lea and Brown's erratic driving.
The crash prompted several changes to work zone safety policies in Maryland.
Since then, the Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration (MDOT SHA) instituted a policy that dictates the opening of a work zone must be blocked by a protection vehicle, and an adjacent lane must be closed during construction work.
The crash also led to the creation of Maryland's Work Zone Safety Work Group, which helped create the Maryland Road Worker Protection Act, a state law that allows for more speed cameras and increased fines in work zones.
