WASHINGTON — Authorities in Maryland say alcohol may have been involved in an early morning wrong-way crash that killed two people on U.S. 50 near the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.
The fatal crash, which authorities are still investigating, occurred just east of Bay Dale Drive a little after 2 a.m. Wednesday when a 2002 Hyundai Accent crashed head-on into a 2002 Honda Civic, Maryland State Police said in news release.
Authorities identified the driver of the Accent as 31-year-old Christine Parks, of Severn, Maryland, and the driver of the Civic as Hui Xu, 34, of Herndon, Virginia. Both were pronounced dead at the scene.
Maryland State Police said they are still investigating what led to the crash and that they haven’t ruled out alcohol as a factor. Police said they discovered alcoholic beverage containers in Parks’ vehicle.
Authorities do not know where Parks was traveling to or from and have not yet determined where she entered U.S. 50 going the wrong way. Authorities said they do not believe speed was a factor in the crash.
Police said they were initially dispatched to U.S. 50 after getting a call that a vehicle at the Severn River Bridge was traveling the wrong way in the westbound lanes.
After Parks struck Xu’s vehicle, the Civic rotated into the middle lane, where it was also struck by a 2014 Toyota Avalon driven by Alexander Kwon, 21, of Brea, California. Kwon and his passenger, 21-year-old Janet Kim, of Fullerton, California, were both treated at Anne Arundel County Medical Center and released.
Police spent the morning reconstructing the accident, which closed the westbound lanes of U.S. 50 for several hours.
WTOP’s Colleen Kelleher and Nick Iannelli contributed to this report.
