A 4-year-old girl is dead and her twin sister hospitalized after being struck by separate vehicles in the middle of Interstate 70 near Hagerstown, Maryland, on Monday evening.
An initial investigation found that the two girls and their family were traveling westbound on I-70 in the area of Crystal Falls Drive around 7:30 p.m. Monday, when they pulled into the right shoulder for a pit stop so the children could relieve themselves.
While their mother was outside the vehicle, their teen cousin left the back seat and ran across both westbound lanes of the highway to the center median, Maryland State Police said in a news release.
The twin girls then also left the back seat on the driver’s side and ran toward him. As they crossed the interstate, both were struck by two separate vehicles.
One 4-year-old twin died at Meritus Medical Center in Hagerstown, police said. A medevac helicopter took her sister to Johns Hopkins Children’s Hospital for treatment.
All westbound lanes of I-70 were closed for about three hours late Monday night while police conducted a crash reconstruction. Traffic was detoured onto Maryland Route 17.
Below is the area of the incident:
