A fiery collision on the west side of downtown Baltimore involving two Maryland Transit Police vehicles briefly shut down light rail service and temporarily caused some buses to be rerouted Wednesday afternoon, the Maryland Transit Administration said.
Two police vehicles were in route to a report of gunshots at the the Penn North Metro Subway station when they collided near the intersection of West Fayette and North Howard streets, an MTA spokesperson said. Both officers were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.
MTA spokesperson Veronica Battisti said police made an arrest in Penn North and no injuries were reported.
Djaen Jacobs, 23, was standing in front of the Downtown Mini Mart when he saw an unmarked black truck with its lights on T-bone an MTA Police SUV.
The MTA vehicle flipped over, he said, and crashed into a light pole as the black vehicle caught fire.
For about two hours, Light RailLink riders had to use a bus bridge from Camden Yards to North Avenue. Service was restored around 2:40 p.m., the MTA said. A handful of Local and CityLink buses were diverted as a result the incident.
An employee at the One Stop Food store across the street from the crash said she heard a loud “boom” around 12:15 p.m. She finished up with a customer, looked outside and saw a small flame coming from one of the cars, which then got bigger and bigger, she said.
Around 1:30 p.m., the fire had been put out. The marked SUV sat on the sidewalk near the intersection, the front badly damaged, airbags blown and multiple tires flattened. The black vehicle sat next to it, the engine exposed as the entire front of the car appeared burned.
Workers in MTA vests cleaned up remnants of the vehicle from the street.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
