A three-vehicle crash on the southbound Baltimore-Washington Parkway at Riverdale Road left six people hospitalized early Saturday morning in East Riverdale, Maryland, and one of the drivers was arrested afterward. The injuries were described as not life-threatening, though the collision was serious enough to trap multiple people inside their vehicles.
Fire Crews Found People Trapped in Wreckage
The 29-mile Baltimore-Washington Parkway opened in October 1954 after a joint federal-state effort, and the National Park Service now manages its 19-mile stretch between Fort Meade and the District line. U.S. Park Police patrol the parkway; NPS guidance says the posted limit changes from 55 mph to 45 mph between the Route 450 exit and the District boundary. The federal management and policing roles help explain why Park Police are central to investigations on the route.
According to WJLA, Prince George's County Fire and EMS crews responded to the scene around 2:42 a.m., according to Michael Yourishin, and found multiple people trapped in the wreckage. Fire officials transported four patients whose injuries were serious but not life-threatening, the station reported.
Those four patients included two 16-year-old girls, a 9-year-old boy, and a 46-year-old woman, per the same account. U.S. Park Police said six people in total were taken to hospitals, and that all six had injuries that were not life-threatening.
Arrest Made, but Few Details Released
One driver was arrested following the crash, police said, though the agency did not identify anyone involved or explain the reason for the arrest. The station's report notes that Saturday's crash remains under investigation, with no further information released about potential charges or the circumstances that led up to the collision.
The lack of detail has left basic questions about the case unanswered for now, including who was driving each vehicle and what triggered the pileup on the parkway.
Second Serious Parkway Crash in a Week
This was not an isolated incident for the Baltimore-Washington Parkway. A previous crash on the parkway's northbound lanes near Maryland Route 197 occurred one week before Saturday's collision, killing two people and hospitalizing four others, the outlet reported.
Just one week earlier, on Sept. 19, a northbound crash near MD-197 involved a different sequence: investigators said one vehicle rear-ended another, which rolled over and caught fire. The driver and a passenger in the struck vehicle died, while four others were taken to hospitals, one with life-threatening injuries, NBC Washington reported. The northbound lanes were closed at Powder Mill Road during the investigation.
Back-to-back serious crashes on the same stretch of highway underscore how dangerous the parkway corridor has been in recent weeks, though the full circumstances behind each incident are still being sorted out by investigators.
