Maryland State Police officials said troopers issued a citation for negligent driving to the operator of a van that swerved across a Route 5 median in Charles County and struck a car carrying a family of five Sunday, killing a 14-year-old passenger.
No criminal charges have been filed against Gregory L. Chapman, 36, whose Ford F-350 van crashed into the side of a 1999 Nissan Maxima carrying a Fort Washington family to a dinner with family friends in St. Mary's County. Police issued the citation, which carries a $500 fine, shortly after the accident.
The crash killed Craig L. Bond Jr., a freshman at Friendly High School. His mother, father, sister and brother were taken to Washington area hospitals with minor injuries. Chapman declined medical treatment at the scene.
Chapman was not paying attention to the road as he drove north about 5:30 p.m. Sunday on Route 5, said 1st Sgt. D.A. Truitt of the Maryland State Police barrack in La Plata. He swerved left onto the median and lost control of his vehicle, which then barreled into the southbound lane and struck the Bond family car on the rear driver-side door, Truitt said.
"Once he was running off the road, he was unable to gain control of the vehicle," Truitt said.
Chapman, a Waldorf resident, did not return a phone call seeking comment on Tuesday afternoon.
Tondria Bond, 38, who was riding in the front passenger seat of the Maxima with her husband, Craig Bond Sr., driving and their three children in the back seat, said the van came at their car without warning.
"We saw him come across the median and that's a really big median. It looked like he had lost control. We tried to swerve to miss him, but he hit the back of the car," Tondria Bond said.
Her son was pronounced dead at the scene.
Tondria Bond said her oldest son would be remembered as "a joyful child. He was always joking and just being silly all the time."
Craig Bond was a cornerback on Friendly High School's junior varsity football team, and he ran cross-country with the Clinton Track Club.
His favorite activity of all, though, his mother said, was hanging out with his father, Craig Bond Sr., an electrical engineer for Pepco. They often went fishing, just the two of them. Whenever the elder Bond was making home improvements or doing yard work -- building a deck, setting up a swing set, cutting down trees -- his son was there to help.
"They were very close. He loved his father," said Tondria Bond, a Defense Department employee.
She said her son began talking of college this year and had joined the high school ROTC program. One day, he hoped to join the Navy, serving in the military like his father, who was in the Air Force, Tondria Bond said.
"He had a bright future ahead of him," she said.