A 61-year-old man from Suitland has died after a two-vehicle crash on Branch Avenue in Temple Hills, with investigators still trying to piece together what caused the collision. Police identified the victim as Lamar Garvin, and said the driver of the other vehicle was not hurt.
According to WJLA, Prince George's County police said officers responded to the 4400 block of Branch Avenue around 2:45 p.m. Wednesday for a crash involving two vehicles. Garvin was taken to a hospital, where he died, police said. The outlet reported that investigators are still working to determine what led to the crash.
In an update Thursday, police confirmed Garvin's identity and age, according to DC News Now. The station reported that police are asking anyone with information about the crash to call the Prince George's County Police Department's Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Unit at 301-731-4422.
A Stretch of Road With a Recent History
Wednesday's crash was not the only fatal collision to hit this stretch of Branch Avenue this year. In March, a driver died after colliding with another car near the Marlow Heights Shopping Center, in the 4300 block of Branch Avenue, the same report from WJLA noted. That crash happened around 9:10 p.m., and as in Wednesday's incident, the driver of the second vehicle was not injured and stayed at the scene, per the outlet's account.
Neither crash report ties the two incidents together through any confirmed cause, and no citations or enforcement actions related to either crash have been disclosed. Still, the back-to-back fatalities on the same corridor underscore long-standing concerns about traffic safety in Prince George's County.
A County With a Long-Running Safety Challenge
Those concerns are not new. Historical data cited by the Washington Examiner showed that Prince George's County recorded 553 traffic fatalities between 2006 and 2010, an average of 111 deaths a year during that period. The same report noted that the county saw 136 pedestrian and bicyclist deaths over those five years, compared with 84 in Montgomery County and 91 in the District.
The county's police department describes fatal accidents as unintended collisions that result in a death within 30 days of the crash, and says such cases are always thoroughly investigated and reconstructed, according to the Prince George's County Police Department. Statewide, the Maryland Highway Safety Office has described its mission as working toward zero traffic deaths and injuries, per materials from Zero Deaths Maryland.
For now, what led to Wednesday's crash on Branch Avenue remains under investigation. Police have not released further details about the circumstances, and anyone with information is urged to come forward.
