Fatal crash underscores danger of Belair Road

PERRY HALL, Md. - The official police report on Wednesday’s accident will suggest a southbound Honda Accord crossed the center line, sideswiping one car and hitting another head on.
 
"The driver of that Honda Accord, 30-year old Amy Thiess, was pronounced deceased on the scene," said Det. Cathy Batton of the Baltimore County Police Department.
    
But for the owner of a nearby house on Belair Road just above Perry Hall Road, it was like a recurrent nightmare.

"We were in the house watching TV and we heard the initial smack of the cars, but it was... It was a mess.  It was mayhem," said Jeff Magness.
    
With a blind northbound curve as his neighbor, Magness says every time he pulls out of his driveway, he risks being t-boned by oncoming traffic.

"I've lived here basically about 30 years,” said Magness, “In that whole time, I can't count the number of accidents we've had, especially when it gets icy or it gets snowy."
    
According to the Maryland State Highway Administration, the stretch of Route 1 between Forge and Miller Roads has been the site of 32 crashes over the last three years.
 
"Something definitely needs to be done whether it's straightening this bend out, if its putting a camera system in, if you want to put a median in to at least stop traffic from running into each other---I don't know," said Magness.

For the longtime resident, any improvements can’t come soon enough.

He says he spent most of the morning on the phone with grief counselors trying to deal with last night's death.

It was Magness, after all, who ran from his home to try to assist the victims in the seconds, which followed the crash.
 
"Nobody got ejected, but the one lady got out of the car and she collapsed getting out of her car.  The other lady..."

He solemnly shook his head back and forth unable to go on.


***A 42-year old woman from Nottingham survived the collision with serious injuries.
Paramedics transported her to the Shock Trauma Center.