BETHESDA, Md. — Following the death of 17-year-old Jacob Cassell on Old Georgetown Road, a Montgomery County Council member is calling for changes to a road he deems dangerous.
Police said Cassell was biking on the sidewalk when he fell into the road and into a car's path Wednesday, sustaining injuries that ended up killing him.
“As a parent of a teenager who rides her bike occasionally this way, it’s terrifying," said Susan Laine, who lives near the road. "There’s not enough room. There’s no safe space for bikes. It was just a matter of time.”
Council member Hans Riemer said he has cycled along the road, and said it feels unsafe, because there's no buffer.
“The road has been widened all the way up to the edge of the property...There’s no buffer between the sidewalk and the road…The cars might be coming 40 miles per hour inches from you," said Riemer. "And of course, there’s no margin for error in a situation like that, so if you do unfortunately end up In the roadway for whatever reason, you might be killed.”
Riemer has ideas to make the road safer.
He suggests building a wider sidewalk on the northbound side of Old Georgetown Road and adding about a three-foot wide buffer or patch of grass to separate it from the road.
The council member said they would likely need to narrow the lanes as well to accommodate the change.
“These are decisions made decades ago, but we have to revisit them and think differently about our infrastructure," he said. "It’s really a problem. It’s costing people lives all over the county, and I think we can make a change here.”
The Maryland Department of Transportation controls Old Georgetown Road, so Riemer intends to work with the Council on a plan to later submit to the state.
Until then, neighbors say the memorial set up where Cassell lost his life will serve as a beacon for safer streets.