By Martin Weil

Officers came upon the crash scene and located the driver, who had left the vehicle but was nearby, said Officer Henry Tippett, a police spokesman.

Police identified the man as Kenneth R. Taylor, 28, of the 15400 block of Mount Calvert Road.

Events unfolded rapidly, Tippett said. Officers spoke with Taylor briefly and then went to the crashed vehicle to see whether anybody else was inside.

While they were checking it, Tippett said, Taylor, who they thought was the driver of the wrecked car, jumped into one of the officers' cruisers.

He headed north for a mile or so, Tippett said, before the cruiser left Croom road near Mattaponi Road, where Croom bends sharply. Police were not pursuing the cruiser, Tippett said.

"There was no chase involved," he said. "This all happened so quick."

Police said the cruiser, with Taylor inside, struck a tree and burst into flames.

Police tried to extinguish the fire but were unable to do it, he said. Firefighters, who had been called to the scene of the initial crash, arrived at the second one and were eventually able to put out the blaze, Tippett said.

Taylor was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. His home address is about two miles east of Croom Road and a few miles north of where the crashes occurred.

The cause of the original crash remained under investigation Saturday night, police said.

Taylor's body was taken for an autopsy to the office of the chief medical examiner in Baltimore, police said.

Authorities said Taylor suffered injuries in the first crash but what the injuries were was not specified. It was not clear what caused the second crash or whether the injuries played any part, police said. The police cruiser was destroyed.