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  • zoostation

    , ,
    Moderator
    Jan 28, 2007
    22,857
    Abingdon
    Agree. You are describing a T intersection there at point, which is nuts.

    The point that argues against this as an entry how much out-of-the-way driving this young woman would do to go to a point where there is no food or gas stations.

    Coming from Salisbury (presumably)...to get to that T to make a wrong-way left, this driver would have had to exit at Sandy Point westbound and then cross back over 50 to the White Hall shopping area.

    Again, no gas or food there, but there is a liquor store.

    There is a Papa Johns still I am pretty sure, and a church and a cake store and some other things. Not much but a few things. Location has never been a beacon of success as long as I can remember. Mikasa Outlet was always its crown jewel but that is long gone.

    I really wonder if she got off after the bridge looking for gas and got tangled up and lost on the access roads which can be very confusing to someone not familiar. Then wound up down by Whitehall. Then stressed, worried about gas with her baby in the car, misses the no left turn signs and swings left onto 50. Keeps on panicked, afraid to stop, looking for some way to get off or a barrier gap to cross over to the proper side. I dunno, all just speculation. What isn't speculation is there are at least two grieving families and a seriously injured toddler who will be missing his mom forever now. What a terrible thing.
     

    Rack&Roll

    R.I.P
    Patriot Picket
    Jan 23, 2013
    22,304
    Bunkerville, MD
    This was a mid-day crash. She may have found her way to McDonalds there on the south side access road, then returned east to reach that east-bound off-ramp and started this wrong-way tragedy from that point too.

    I believe some changes in traffic engineering will be set in motion by this.
     

    markgrutz

    Active Member
    Feb 1, 2011
    764
    Ellicott City, MD
    I believe some changes in traffic engineering will be set in motion by this.

    Doubt it, Maryland has some real Gold Star engineers working for them. Mis-marked entrance ramps are probably the standard. Heck up here in Ellicott City one of them thought it was a good idea to make a right AND left exit to 70W. That causes people to swerve across the entire road on a daily basis.

    Mark
     

    zoostation

    , ,
    Moderator
    Jan 28, 2007
    22,857
    Abingdon
    This was a mid-day crash. She may have found her way to McDonalds there on the south side access road, then returned south to reach that east-bound off-ramp and started this wrong-way tragedy from that point too.

    I believe some changes in traffic engineering will be set in motion by this.

    Regardless of the cause of the crash I think they need to shut that intersection at Whitehall off. They've already long walled off all of other t-intersections down that way. The state will need to put ramps in to do it. There is a whole community down Whitehall Road and around there that needs 50 access. The state just has to spend the money.
     

    Rack&Roll

    R.I.P
    Patriot Picket
    Jan 23, 2013
    22,304
    Bunkerville, MD
    The Route 50 engineering might have something to do with the fact that the McDonald's near White Hall was said at one time to be the busiest McD's in the country.

    That Route 50 off-ramp & on-ramp just east of that location (which also includes a Wendy's and the tackle store) was probably put there to keep those businesses from being choked out.
     

    smokey

    2A TEACHER
    Jan 31, 2008
    31,412
    She probably got on the wrong ramp at the Ferguson Rd. interchange, the East bound exit ramp is right next to East bound entry ramp on Ferguson Rd.
    She probably had some other issues going on; DWI, drugs, talking on the cell phone, etc.

    :sad20:

    That's what I'm thinking. I live off of bay Dale. If you're not paying attention, I could see how you could turn up the wrong way instead of carrying on eastbound. It was rough putting in a couple hours extra in Columbia today for field day tomorrow, only to have a hour and a half trip home... but it did help me appreciate arriving safe with my youngest when I got home. Hopefully the infant will pull through. At 6:30 today they were still sweeping up and hauling off mangled pieces of the cars.
     

    Doco Overboard

    Ultimate Member
    I think I can remember a light on 50 just down from the 7-11 where you could turn left to the bridge from Cape St. Claire. As a matter of fact there was before the new road was built. Everybody is hauling ass through there now. What a different place.
     

    CrueChief

    Cocker Dad/RIP Bella
    Apr 3, 2009
    2,999
    Napolis-ish
    I think I can remember a light on 50 just down from the 7-11 where you could turn left to the bridge from Cape St. Claire. As a matter of fact there was before the new road was built. Everybody is hauling ass through there now. What a different place.

    Yeah I have crossed all the way across 50 when 648 would cross at the 84 lumber to the south side of 50. Man those where the days.:rolleyes:
     

    Rack&Roll

    R.I.P
    Patriot Picket
    Jan 23, 2013
    22,304
    Bunkerville, MD
    I don't think the wrong-way access happened at the
    Ferguson Road off ramp.

    It's close enough to the accident scene that I don't think there would have been time to initiate the several 911 calls that are said to been received.
     

    roady

    Ultimate Member
    Dec 29, 2012
    1,362
    Eastern Shore
    Just said on the news they are thinking she got on at Bay Dale Dr and made it 1/2 mile before the crash sight. Hard to imagine making it 1/2 mile before an accident. I travel that section of highway normally around that time and there is no shortage of cars and trucks headed east at that time of day.
     

    haoleboy

    1/2 Banned
    MDS Supporter
    Sep 17, 2005
    4,085
    Dentsville
    My gf just told me that she knows the Woman and the child. Woman was going to school in Salisbury and is from Charles County.
    She has made that trip hundreds of times. Really confusing how that day she got all turned around. :sad20:
     

    Bountied

    Ultimate Member
    Apr 6, 2012
    6,893
    Pasadena
    My gf just told me that she knows the Woman and the child. Woman was going to school in Salisbury and is from Charles County.
    She has made that trip hundreds of times. Really confusing how that day she got all turned around. :sad20:

    Potential suicide? Maybe she freaked out and lost it?
     

    Bountied

    Ultimate Member
    Apr 6, 2012
    6,893
    Pasadena
    It's 2.1 miles from the Wawa to the site of the accident. Maybe they will release the whole story so we can stop speculating?
     

    adit

    ReMember
    MDS Supporter
    Feb 20, 2013
    19,506
    DE
    Doubt it, Maryland has some real Gold Star engineers working for them. Mis-marked entrance ramps are probably the standard. Heck up here in Ellicott City one of them thought it was a good idea to make a right AND left exit to 70W. That causes people to swerve across the entire road on a daily basis.

    Mark

    It's 2.1 miles from the Wawa to the site of the accident. Maybe they will release the whole story so we can stop speculating?

    I was at the MSP Barracks in Annapolis last night talking to the officer on desk duty. He said he heard it was Wawa. The investigating officer was gone for the day.

    I have a call into the investigator as he was looking for surveillance footage along 50 and Busch's Frontage.

    The accident happened directly across from the 84 Lumber/Storage facility if that helps anyone visualize where it happened.
     

    Rack&Roll

    R.I.P
    Patriot Picket
    Jan 23, 2013
    22,304
    Bunkerville, MD
    I drove that stretch today and there were some major truck skid marks in the middle lane going down the hill toward the Bay Dale overpass.

    I'm guessing that downhill section provided sight lines to see someone coming at them in the left lane, and people moved over.

    For someone coming off the Severn River bridge going east there is a curve before cresting that hill at the Route 2 interchange. The crash was going too happen in that stretch because there was no time to react and yank the wheel to the right.

    As someone who finishes work late on weekend nights, I have tried to make a habit of driving in the right lane around the Beltway and on route 50 because a wrong-way driver will naturally occupy the farthest right lane for them – – which is my left lane.
     

    adit

    ReMember
    MDS Supporter
    Feb 20, 2013
    19,506
    DE
    I just spoke with the investigating MSP officer and she definitely entered 50E from Busch's Frontage going the wrong way.
     

    Rack&Roll

    R.I.P
    Patriot Picket
    Jan 23, 2013
    22,304
    Bunkerville, MD
    That's what thought based on the multiple 911 calls.

    She was going the wrong way for TWO minutes in broad daylight.

    Unbelievably, she crested one hill going west on 50E at the Red, Hot & Blue (restaurant with the windmill) and did not collide with anyone.

    It's a shame the clear sightlines over that next mile doing downhill and then uphill were not enough to get her stopped.
     
    Last edited:

    Matlack

    Scribe
    Dec 15, 2008
    8,555
    Its pretty hard to imagine someone getting on a highway going the wrong way without it being on purpose or caused by something else. If she managed to go up a wrong ramp, you would have quickly noticed all the traffic going the wrong way and immediately stopped. Then either backed down the ramp or tried to turn around some how. Its one thing to be going with traffic, miss your exit, then say, "a well I will go to the next exit." That aint happening if I am going the wrong way on a highway.
     

    adit

    ReMember
    MDS Supporter
    Feb 20, 2013
    19,506
    DE
    Its pretty hard to imagine someone getting on a highway going the wrong way without it being on purpose or caused by something else. If she managed to go up a wrong ramp, you would have quickly noticed all the traffic going the wrong way and immediately stopped. Then either backed down the ramp or tried to turn around some how. Its one thing to be going with traffic, miss your exit, then say, "a well I will go to the next exit." That aint happening if I am going the wrong way on a highway.

    Or she panicked and did not know what to do. Or there was no traffic during that period of time.

    I put Zero credibility on any rumor that she did it on purpose.

    Can anyone here say which direction the 911 callers were traveling?
     

    Rack&Roll

    R.I.P
    Patriot Picket
    Jan 23, 2013
    22,304
    Bunkerville, MD
    Some calls would almost certainly have come from the west bound drivers who were likely sounding their horns as they drove parallel to her.

    Maybe all the commotion of oncoming horns plus horns coming from parallel drivers on her right panicked her. Going west in the eastbound lane gave her NO pull off to the right, where there is about 6 feet of grass between the road and the guardrail there.

    Sad, but I have to think she was DUI with weed or liquor.
     

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