The family of Sybil DiMaggio, one of six construction workers killed in last year’s Interstate 695 crash, filed a lawsuit Thursday in Baltimore County Circuit Court against the state, Concrete General Inc. and the two drivers involved.

The Gaithersburg-based contracting company “failed on every level” to establish a safe construction zone, the 43-page complaint alleges. The crash “should never have been able to happen,” attorney Michael Belsky said at a news conference.

DiMaggio, from Severna Park, was an inspector for KCI Technologies Inc., an engineering, consulting and construction firm. The other five people killed — Rolando “Chi Chi” Ruiz, Mahlon “Stick” Simmons II and his son Mahlon “MJ” Simmons III, and brothers Carlos Orlando Villatoro Escobar and Jose Armando “Pancho” Escobar — worked for Concrete General. The lawsuit involves only DiMaggio’s family.

Concrete General was contracted by the Maryland Department of Transportation and State Highway Administration to complete a project aimed at reducing I-695 congestion between I-70 and Maryland Route 43.

The complaint includes counts of negligence with wrongful death and vicarious liability, alleging that Concrete General and the state breached duties to create a safe work zone and were “otherwise careless, reckless, and/or negligent in several ways.”

“I think in situations like this, it’s important to remember that Ms. DiMaggio, Sybil, she was a human being,” Catherine Dickinson, an attorney representing the family, said at the news conference. “She loved her job, she loved her life, and she loved her family, and her loss is felt profoundly every day.”

The company and the state failed to use proper traffic control devices, place crash attenuator trucks as recommended, follow responsibilities in the project’s Transportation Management Plan, among other things, according to the complaint. They also didn’t ensure the work zone’s safety despite several other crashes occurring at the site, the complaint says.

On average, the project was struck three to four times a week since Oct. 18, 2022, a Concrete General employee said, which would be about 156 to 208 times in a year, according to the complaint. A review by The Baltimore Sun found five total crashes where a car struck the site’s concrete barriers before the March 22, 2023, collision were recorded in work zone crash reports, which were released by the State Highway Administration last year in response to a public records request.

George Durm, DiMaggio’s husband, said during the news conference that she was a “loving, energetic, fantastic person,” adding that he and her family miss her every day. There’s an assumption of accountability and that “people are making good faith efforts” to right what happened, but that isn’t “always the case” Durm said.

“So how do I close pain? Like, that’s never going to happen,” he said. “The state, the city, they need to know what happened, they need to know why it happened and they need to know what happened afterward.”

The workers were declared dead at the scene of the crash after being struck by an Acura TLX that collided with a Volkswagen Jetta, entering the work zone through a gap in the concrete barriers meant to protect the area from traffic.

Melachi Duane Darnell Brown was driving the Volkswagen, which was traveling at about 111 mph at the time of the collision. The Acura, operated by Lisa Adrienne Lea, was recorded at 108 mph. Brown pleaded guilty to six counts of negligent vehicular manslaughter and will serve the remainder of his 18-month sentence in home detention. Lea, who tried to merge lanes and hit Brown’s vehicle, sending her into the work zone, faces several charges, including vehicular manslaughter, and is accused of driving while impaired by drugs. Her trial has been postponed to April.

According to a Maryland Occupational Safety and Health report completed in September 2023, the workers were getting ready to install trench drains in the median of the interstate to support an expansion project that would open the shoulders as temporary lanes.

The concrete barriers had several openings as access points to allow construction vehicles into the work zone. However, the Maryland Department of Labor issued citations to the Maryland Department of Transportation and Concrete General after the crash that said the site failed to display proper signage ahead of the openings to warn drivers that work vehicles could be moving in and out of the work zone. In a statement, the State Highway Administration said signs wouldn’t have prevented the crash.

The State Highway Administration said immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit”it does not comment on pending litigation. Concrete General could not be reached for comment.

Since the crash, the National Transportation Safety Board released its preliminary report on the investigation of the crash, and there have been other probes into safety issues in work zones in addition to the criminal investigation.

State lawmakers also worked to combat speeding and other hazards through measures like the Governor’s Work Zone Safety Work Group, chaired by Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller, and the Maryland Road Workers Safety Act of 2024.

Belsky, a partner at Schlachman, Belsky, Weiner & Davey P.A., which is representing DiMaggio’s husband and children, has previously said that the crash shouldn’t have happened. He referenced a truck-mounted attenuator protection vehicle, which, according to the transportation safety board report, was parked and unattended at the downstream side of the concrete barrier opening. Belsky also highlighted crashes in the same spot and a toppled “Shoulder Closed” sign that wasn’t replaced.

“The crash attenuator truck was not placed properly by an employee of Defendent CGI. It should have been placed in front of the workers, including Sybil DiMaggio, in the gap just upstream from where the work was taking place,” the complaint read.

The lawsuit seeks judgment for economic and noneconomic damages in excess of $75,000 for DiMaggio’s estate and her husband and children. Her children, Dylan DiMaggio and Nora DiMaggio, said every day has been difficult since losing their mother during the news conference, calling for accountability.

“We just wish we could have her back,” Nora said. “We won’t get that, we can only hope for justice at this point.”

Baltimore Sun reporter Dan Belson contributed to this article. Have a news tip? Contact Kiersten Hacker at khacker@baltsun.com or on X as @KierstenHacker.