What Really Happened on Route 210?
We may never know exactly what happened early Saturday morning in Accokeek, Maryland on Route 210 when eight people watching an illegal street race were mowed down by a driver coming up behind them.
The 20 year old driver, who's name police are with holding has talked with his uncle and legal guardian who talked with me by telephone Sunday.
The Uncle says his nephew- the driver- says he was returning from Accokeek where he picked up his younger brother from band practice.
It was about 3:30am Saturday. He denies eyewitness claims that his car lights were not on, that he was driving at a high rate of speed, or that he was being pursued by a police vehicle.
An eyewitness told me by phone Saturday night that the driver plowed into the crowd without stopping. The driver told his uncle there was no blinding smoke as police had suspected, but he says he didn't see the crowd of people in the roadway until it was too late. He says he slammed on his brakes and doesn't remember anything after that;
I checked back with one of the eyewitnesses who had talked with Nine News Now by phone Saturday night. He says dozens of people who were watching the street race from atop their vans--thus were never in danger near the roadway--can confirm the driver was traveling very fast-had no lights on-and was being "chased" by police.
Prince George's and Charles County Police both deny there was a chase underway or that a Police vehicle was near the crash scene before the accident.
Investigators have said they want to talk with everyone who was at the scene Saturday morning--that would be about 300 people--including the operators of the two vehicles that were racing.
Click below to view the Saturday night report from one of the eyewitnesses.who wanted to remain anonymous. He's a well known racing enthusiast in the area..two of his friends were among the eight people killed in the accident. Two other associates were badly injured.
Click here to watch Street Race Eyewitness Report.
The 20 year old driver, who's name police are with holding has talked with his uncle and legal guardian who talked with me by telephone Sunday.
The Uncle says his nephew- the driver- says he was returning from Accokeek where he picked up his younger brother from band practice.
It was about 3:30am Saturday. He denies eyewitness claims that his car lights were not on, that he was driving at a high rate of speed, or that he was being pursued by a police vehicle.
An eyewitness told me by phone Saturday night that the driver plowed into the crowd without stopping. The driver told his uncle there was no blinding smoke as police had suspected, but he says he didn't see the crowd of people in the roadway until it was too late. He says he slammed on his brakes and doesn't remember anything after that;
I checked back with one of the eyewitnesses who had talked with Nine News Now by phone Saturday night. He says dozens of people who were watching the street race from atop their vans--thus were never in danger near the roadway--can confirm the driver was traveling very fast-had no lights on-and was being "chased" by police.
Prince George's and Charles County Police both deny there was a chase underway or that a Police vehicle was near the crash scene before the accident.
Investigators have said they want to talk with everyone who was at the scene Saturday morning--that would be about 300 people--including the operators of the two vehicles that were racing.
Click below to view the Saturday night report from one of the eyewitnesses.who wanted to remain anonymous. He's a well known racing enthusiast in the area..two of his friends were among the eight people killed in the accident. Two other associates were badly injured.
Click here to watch Street Race Eyewitness Report.
posted by Bruce Johnson @ 9:42 PM
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4 Comments:
I have a friend that lives off of that stretch of 210. My wife and I would go visit him on weekends and all you would hear even inside of his house are speeding motorcycles all day and into the night. I have never seen a cop car on that stretch of road... not even at the end of the month when you'd think that the cops would try to make their quotas.
Now to what I know about drag racing. I think that it's very plausible that the drag-racers took off, the spectators ran into the road to cheer like it almost always ends up happening... and then... you know the rest. I've seen plenty of drag races, but they're usually in more urban areas where you wouldn't have someone unrelated to the race driving at speed behind the racers and spectators. That was a very unfortunate lapse in judgment on the part of the spectators and a very unfortunate accident for the driver. I feel for them all, but you have to ask yourself, why go in the middle of a wide open road in the middle of the night?
I am a relative of the one of the spectators who fortunately left the scene uninjured. He did however witness a number of his friends die on that dreadful night. It is truly unfortunate that so many inocent lives were lost but I can not believe that not one person in the crowd did not see this speeding car heading directly towards the onlookers. I would imagine that if these races are deemed a popular event that somoeone in the crowd of spectators is playing "look-out" for not only other vehicles but for the police. If I was driving at night and came across a huge crowd or thick smoke, my immediate reaction is to atleast slow down for precautionary measures. This leads me to believe that the driver of the Crown Vic was driving at a high rate of speed and more than likely without the use of headlights! I do not know how the police can automatically determine that this driver is totally inocent of any wrong doing. I have not heard that he was tested for drunk driving or anything of that nature. I do not know what type of investigation can be conducted to determine if he was driving with or without head lights. I do know that many witnesses say that he was speeding and did not have his headlights on. The sad part is these witnesses won't step up for fear of being charged with some type of illegal activity. I do not condone these illegal racing events but I do feel for the families and friends of the deceased.
My husband and I live on 210, just past the light near B&J Carryout. Have been here for 15+ years. If the weather is reasonably dry the racing goes on over the weekends. Even during the day, the noise from the motorcycle racing is overwhelming here, we can barely hear each other speaking in our own yard.
I was complaining to my husband about the awful noise from the street racing the Saturday before the accident occurred and between the cars and the motorcycles racing every weekend, it's been a constant source of aggravation. We have never seen police go past the Rt. 373 traffic light, and one admitted to us that they are too busy with other things to do so.
Our feeling is that if they just drove through the area occasionally, the street racers would have seen the police presence and moved on. This could have been avoided.
WAKE UP you blind sheep. This is in NO way shape or form the fault of the police. It is the direct fault of those that participate in this activity. The police a busy running call after call for other fine upstanding citizens who commit crimes and blame it on someone else. The population as a whole in this fine area of maryland live to blame the police for everything that happens. Take responsibility for your actions people. Admit it you played an illegal game and lost. Maybe just maybe the fine upstanding citizens will learn from this but I highly doubt it based on the evident fact they will always claim it is someones fault and that they are just victims of their surroundings and culture.
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