A Harford County state senator has asked the State Highway Administration to install a concrete barrier in the median of the Bel Air Bypass along the stretch of road where a fatal accident occurred Friday.
State Sen. Barry Glassman said that while the crash appeared to have been caused by driver negligence, constituents have told him that the stretch of road is hazardous.
"Between the volume of traffic and the speed, it's becoming a dangerous area," the Republican said.
The road at that point has two lanes going in each direction, with no barrier or grassy median between.
He said he and several other officials asked the state to conduct a study and then quickly fund the project.
SHA officials said Monday that the bypass is not unusually prone to problems but have since said the agency is open to making changes.
David Buck, an SHA spokesman, said the agency would begin an analysis quickly and would have results within two months.
He said that SHA engineers would have to consider a range of factors, among them: If a concrete barrier were added, the roadway would have to be widened by five feet. Buck said that engineers would have to analyze whether the shoulders could bear the load of so many vehicles.
The Bel Air Bypass is used by 37,000 vehicles a day, he said. The road was built decades ago, and at that time, engineers generally didn't think much about strength of soil under the shoulder, he said.
According to the SHA, from 2005 through 2007, the stretch of road extending six-tenths of a mile north and south of Vale Road, the site of Friday's crash, had 24 accidents. Buck said that number was not unusually high.
Rich Gardiner, a spokesman for the Bel Air Volunteer Fire Company, said there have been 10 accidents along that portion of road that required the department to extricate victims since 2001. Five of those people died.
Over that time, there were 99 accidents with injuries on the Bel Air Bypass that did not require rescue.
Police say the latest accident occurred when Christopher Lentz, 37, of Glen Arm, crashed his Jeep Cherokee head-on into a Saturn minivan on the bypass.
The crash killed Katherine S. Brady, 31, who was in the front passenger seat of the minivan, and her son, Wilson Brady, 8.
The other child in the back seat of the minivan, 2-year-old Ian Brady, was treated at Johns Hopkins Children's Center and released.
