(Click on the image for the AAA news release)
In a year upended by the coronavirus pandemic and a summer of social unrest, it is an unforeseen tragedy. Traffic deaths, overwhelmingly involving pedestrians, are spiking along Indian Head Highway (Maryland 210) in 2020, although fewer cars are traversing the highway this year. As the carnage continues to unfold on Maryland 210, at least seven persons lost their lives in crashes on the hard-luck roadway to date. In a year like no other due to the virus, it is an unexpected development on a roadway that mercifully experienced a precipitous drop in traffic deaths in 2019.Heading into the tenth month of this calendar year, more than the double the number of people have already perished on the star-crossed roadway, then in all of last year. That tragic tally includes five people on foot, “vulnerable highway users,” and two car deaths. Five of those mortalities –all pedestrians - occurred within a two month period. This compares to only three fatalities along the roadway in 2019. Of the three demises in traffic on Indian Head Highway in 2019, two were foot-travelers, or 66.6 percent or two thirds.