Van Hollen, Berliner Admonish State for Delays in Improving Safety at Bethesda Intersection

U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, Council President Roger Berliner and four state lawmakers are pressuring Maryland transportation officials for a status update on safety improvements at the Bethesda intersection where three people died last year.

Members of the Walt Whitman High School community have grown frustrated by lack of progress in addressing safety concerns at juncture of River Road and Braeburn Parkway.

“Despite repeated requests for safety improvements at this intersection from community members and elected representatives at the county, state, and federal levels, little has been done to remedy the problem,” stated the Tuesday letter that Van Hollen (D-Kensington) and Berliner sent to the Maryland State Highway Administration.

State Sen. Susan Lee and state delegates Bill Frick, Ariana Kelly and Marc Korman also signed on to the letter.

On March 8, more than 100 people gathered at Walt Whitman to press for safety measures at the intersection that serves as the high school’s back entrance. A crash at the site in February 2016 killed three members of a Bethesda family and left a fourth seriously injured.

Michael Buarque de Macedo and his wife, Alessandra, both 52, died along with their 18-year-old son, Thomas, a Walt Whitman senior. The couple’s daughter, Helena Buarque de Macedo, who was 15 at the time, recovered from the injuries she suffered in the collision.

At the community meeting earlier this month, many people said they “remain fearful of this non-signalized intersection,” the letter to SHA stated.

Many people have urged SHA to close the intersection, create a new back entrance to the Whitman parking lot at Pyle Road and install traffic signals at the intersection and crosswalk.

State transportation officials have promised to set up yellow signs that will flash when cameras detect a car turning left from River Road to Braeburn Parkway. The letter states the project’s completion was initially slated for the fall, but has been delayed to this spring.

Van Hollen and other officials asked SHA whether the work was on course to wrap up in the next couple of months. They also asked for SHA to confirm that a concept study—focused on building a signalized intersection at River and Pyle roads—would be ready for release in May.

Finally, the letter asked transportation officials whether they’d looked at designating that section of River Road as a school zone so the speed limit could be lowered.

An SHA spokesman on Thursday afternoon reported the agency administrator had just seen the letter and was preparing a response. In late February, SHA officials indicated that the flashing lights should be installed by early April.