5 people, including pregnant woman, killed in Md. crash
SALISBURY, Md. — Five people from Virginia, including a pregnant woman, were killed early Saturday in a collision between their vehicle and a tractor-trailer in Queen Anne's County on Maryland's Eastern Shore.
Four of the five were members of one family, and the fifth was the boyfriend of one of the women killed. All were from Accomack County, Va.
Killed in the crash were Zarissa M. Ayres, 30, of Greenbush and her unborn child; her sister, Regina M. Ayres, 24, of Greenbush; Regina's boyfriend, Travis M. Stratton, 25, of Onancock; their 2-month-old son Jonathan Ayres; and Regina's daughter, Jordan Ayres, 7, according to Maryland State Police.
The family was traveling in a 2006 Suzuki Forenza on their way to visit relatives in Baltimore when the crash occurred at about 1:15 a.m. at the intersection of routes 50 and 313 in Wye Mills, Md.
A baby shower for Zarissa Ayres was to have been held in Baltimore later Saturday.
An invitation posted on Ayres' Facebook page gave the unborn baby's name, Zoe, and said the shower was scheduled for Saturday at 1 p.m. at a Baltimore address.
High school friend Dana Diamond recalled Zarissa Ayres as being "very smart and so very kind."
Ayres and Diamond both graduated from Nandua High School in Onley, Va., in 2002.
Her sister, Regina Ayres, worked as an administrative assistant at Hospice and Palliative Care of the Eastern Shore in Onancock until she left in October prior to her son's birth, according to Bill LeCato of the hospice.
Investigators have been unable to determine who was driving the car at the time. Officers responding to the scene found the car and the overturned tractor-trailer in the south side of eastbound Route 50, partly off the road on property belonging to a community college.
The Suzuki was traveling west on Route 50 approaching the intersection with Route 213 and the tractor-trailer was southbound on Route 213 when the truck hit the Suzuki on the passenger side and apparently rolled over the car before coming to rest, police said.
Four of the five people killed were pronounced dead at the scene. Zarissa Ayres was transported by ambulance to Easton Memorial Hospital, where both she and her unborn child were pronounced dead, police said.
The tractor-trailer driver, Yvenet Mayette, 28, of Wilmington, Del., was airlifted to University of Maryland Shock Trauma where he is being treated for injuries.
It is not known yet which party had the red light at the intersection where the crash occurred and no charges have been filed, police said.
