Off-Duty Officer Reports Seeing Wrong Way Driver Miles Before Route 50 Fatal Crash; 911 Calls Released
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- An officer who was taking his son to the hospital reported seeing the driver who caused a fatal wrong way crash last week get on Route 50 more than five miles before the crash.
Greenbelt Police Department officer Michael Apgar told the Capital Gazette that he saw the driver, later identified as Christine Parks, 31, driving the wrong way on westbound Route 50 near the Route 2 south exit ramp in Annapolis.
Numerous people called 911 before the fatal accident.
RELATED: Wrong Way Crash Kills 2 On Route 50 In Annapolis
How she ended up driving east in the westbound lanes near the Severn River Bridge is still a mystery.
Minutes later, Parks collided head-on with a car driven by 34-year-old Hui Xu, near Bay Dale Dr.
Both Parks and Xu were pronounced dead at the scene.
In the minutes that follow, witnesses watched in fear as other drivers dodged the wreckage.
This was the second deadly wrong-way crash in just a matter of months.
"It seems odd that it would actually happen," said driver Larry Dando.
In May, a young mother merged on facing traffic with her 14-month old in the backseat.
She and another driver both died in that wreck. Leaving people questioning what could stop the problem that haunts Route 50.
"I think about it as I'm driving every morning. I'm on the look out more than I ever have been. I never dreamed that would ever happen," said driver Gretchen Witzgall.
Engineers from the State Highway Administration have investigated and found no problems with signs or lighting on the highway.
Earlier this month, another driver died in a wrong-way crash nearby on Interstate 97 near Annapolis.
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