A man was hospitalized in critical condition early Thursday after the SUV he was driving struck a pole in Northeast D.C. The crash happened around 12:25 a.m. near the intersection of Michigan Avenue and North Capitol Street NE, according to the Metropolitan Police Department.
Officers responding to the crash report found the man trapped inside the mangled SUV, according to WJLA, which first reported the incident. D.C. Fire and EMS crews rushed to the scene and transported him to a local hospital in critical condition. It is not yet clear what caused the SUV to leave the roadway and strike the fixed pole.
Police Seek Witnesses to Overnight Crash
MPD has not released the driver's identity or an updated condition following his transport to the hospital. Investigators are asking anyone with information about the crash to call police at 202-727-9099 or text the department at 50411, the same tip line listed in the station's original report.
The crash adds to a string of serious roadway incidents that have put North Capitol Street on the radar of D.C. traffic investigators in recent memory. In a separate case, a motorcyclist riding a Fly Wing bike was critically injured on a Saturday afternoon after colliding with a car just blocks away at North Capitol Street and K Street NE, according to WJLA. Fifth District officers responded to that scene around 3:44 p.m. and found the rider unconscious with critical injuries before he was taken to a trauma center; the other vehicle involved in that collision remained at the scene, and MPD's Major Crash unit handled the investigation.
A Stretch of Road With a Troubled History
The Thursday morning crash also echoes an earlier tragedy nearby. A March 2021 release from the Metropolitan Police Department's Major Crash Investigations Unit detailed a traffic fatality at the intersection of 10th Street and Michigan Avenue NE, just a short distance from Thursday's scene, as reported by Metropolitan Police Department. That case does not appear to be connected to this week's crash, but it underscores how this corridor has drawn scrutiny from investigators before.
What nearby crash records show
MPD reported two separate fatal crashes involving pedestrians on North Capitol Street NE: one involving a 2011 Ford Escape in the 5000 block on February 20, 2019, and another involving a single vehicle in the 1400 block on January 3, 2020. Both occurred at different locations and under different circumstances from this week's SUV-pole crash, according to the Metropolitan Police Department and its report on the 2020 crash. WUSA9 reported that an Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner's aggregation counted at least 602 crashes on Michigan Avenue NE from January 2015 to April 2021. That count covers the avenue, not necessarily this intersection, and does not establish a trend or provide a count for the most recent five complete years.
The available figures do not establish whether crashes have increased or decreased at the Michigan Avenue and North Capitol Street intersection, or what the trend has been over the most recent five complete years. The cause of Thursday's crash remains unknown as the investigation continues.
