2nd Pedestrian Fatality In Two Weeks In Resort

OCEAN CITY -- For the second time in just eight days, another pedestrian was struck by a vehicle while attempting to cross Coastal Highway in Ocean City on Tuesday evening and again the victim was not using a marked crosswalk.

Around 5:45 p.m. on Tuesday, Ocean City Police and paramedics responded to a reported vehicle accident involving a pedestrian in the area of 21st Street and Coastal Highway. The preliminary investigation revealed a group of friends were attempting to cross the highway in the area of 21st Street from east to west to catch a southbound bus. Three of the four crossed against the “don’t walk” signal to the median, then began to run across the southbound lanes of the highway, still crossing against the “don’t walk” signal.

One of the three, an unidentified 15-year-old girl from Alleghany County, was struck by a vehicle in the far right southbound lane adjacent to the bus lane. The pedestrian was treated at the scene by Ocean City paramedics and was transported to Atlantic General Hospital with life-threatening injuries. She was later transferred to PRMC in Salisbury where she died of injuries sustained in the accident.

The driver of the vehicle was an unidentified 17-yer-old Worcester County male. The driver was released at the scene without being charged.

Due to the ages of the pedestrian and the driver, names are not being released at this time.

The pedestrian has been taken to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore for an autopsy. Ocean City Police are continuing to investigate the incident and are awaiting the autopsy results.

The pedestrian fatality was the second in eight days in Ocean City.

On May 28, a 22-year-old Cooksville, Md. man was struck and killed by a vehicle traveling at a high rate of speed in the northbound bus lane on Coastal Highway at 54th Street. In that incident, the driver, Diogo Facchini, 30, of Lorton, Va., briefly fled the scene and continued to travel north before turning east onto 55th Street. Witnesses at the scene followed the suspect’s vehicle until police arrived and apprehended Facchini, who has been charged with homicide by motor vehicle, leaving the scene of a fatal collision, driving while intoxicated and impaired and numerous other traffic violations.

While the cases are remarkably different, the common denominator is that both victims were not in crosswalks at the time of the fatal collisions. The OCPD this week is again urging pedestrians to use marked crosswalks.