WASHINGTON — Rain-slicked roadways and poor visibility Monday night are being blamed for a series of vehicle crashes and pedestrians struck within a three-hour period in Montgomery County, Maryland.
“Between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m., Montgomery County Fire and Rescue crews have responded to … more than a dozen collisions, in addition to six pedestrians struck,” said Pete Piringer, public information officer for Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service.
The first of the evening’s crashes involving a pedestrian happened around 5 p.m. in downtown Rockville, at Beall Avenue and Gibbs Street. The woman who was struck was taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries. The driver was not injured, and police have identified her as Anne Marie Sugrue, 24, of Gaithersburg.
Another five pedestrians were struck in separate incidents and suffered traumatic injuries, but Piringer said their injuries did not appear to be life-threatening.
An adult was struck around 6 p.m. at Carrol and Flower avenues in Takoma Park. About a half-hour later, another adult pedestrian was struck in the 20900 block of Frederick Road in Germantown. Then, approximately, 15 minutes later at 6:45 p.m., a teenage pedestrian was struck at Elm Street and Arlington Road. Around 7 p.m., a pedestrian was struck on the Rockville Pike at Halpine Street.
The three-hour period closed when a pedestrian was struck on University Boulevard and E. Franklin Street in Silver Spring around 8 p.m.
“Police are investigating all the circumstances of those,” Piringer said, adding that the series of crashes all took place after sunset with wet road conditions and poor visibility.
The Montgomery County Council has already summoned county traffic officials to a 2 p.m. briefing Tuesday on pedestrian and traffic safety along state highways. The briefing was called after four Kennedy High School students waiting for a school bus were struck in Aspen Hill, when a car careened onto the sidewalk along Georgia Avenue/Md. Route 97.
In addition to the pedestrians struck in Montgomery County, Fairfax County police said a man was struck and sustained life-threatening injuries at Old Courthouse Road Northeast and Westwood Drive around 5 p.m. Police said the man was outside his vehicle inspecting damage from a crash when he was hit by another vehicle.
Elsewhere, a pedestrian was critically injured in the D.C. around 9 p.m. when they were struck by a passenger bus at New York Avenue and North Capitol Street NW.
