CUMBERLAND — Sandy Lippold said her life was forever changed on state Route 51 “38 years, four months and 21 days ago.”
She recalled, “just a half- mile from our driveway,” when a reckless driver caused an accident that “shattered my family’s life.”
Lippold said the crash left her in guarded condition, her mother was critically injured and “my 19-year-old brother was gone.”
Although one moment changed everything for her family, decades later, nothing has changed to make the road safer, she said.
“In fact, it’s gotten worse,” Lippold said of accidents on the highway and the need for speed cameras and police patrol distribution.
“This is not just a public safety issue, this is a leadership issue … we need change,” she said. “How many more people must be injured or killed before something is done?”
Lippold and other local residents were at the Allegany County Board of Commissioners meeting Thursday to address various dangerous conditions on Route 51.
Oldtown resident Ray Miller said sometimes 20 to 30 vehicles are lined up behind a tractor-trailer or dump truck on the road, many drivers exceed the 55 mph speed limit and sometimes one car will pass another on the right where there’s no guardrail.
“It’s getting to be a serious problem,” he said.
On Friday afternoons in the summer, the road “is nothing but cars (and) most of them are not Maryland vehicles,” Miller said.
“Whatever you can do to help … I think you’re gonna save some people’s lives,” he told the commissioners.
Judy Hodel said she’s lived in Oldtown since 1988 and driven Route 51 daily.
“There have been and continues to be serious accidents and deaths resulting from reckless and careless driving,” she said. “The road is narrow with steep ditches on both sides, numerous blind entrances and driveways.”
The road is breaking apart and its shoulders are caving, Hodel said.
“There’s not going to be one perfect solution to make Route 51 safer,” she said, adding that possible solutions include flashing lights, brighter road lines and speed cameras.
County officials, the sheriff’s office and Fraternal Order of Police during the past year have discussed problems on the highway, County Administrator Jason Bennett said.
“It’s a difficult place to police,” he said. “It’s a dangerous place to police.”
The sheriff and commissioners at an upcoming work session plan to address the issue and consider remedies, including speed cameras, Bennett said.
Additionally, county officials will soon meet with representatives from the Maryland Department of Transportation and discuss the problems on the state highway, he said.
County attorney T. Lee. Beeman said the county in 2019 enacted legislation that prohibits speed cameras on county roads.
If the commissioners decide they want speed cameras, they’ll have to repeal the law, he said.
County Commissioner Bill Atkinson said he recently traveled Route 51 on a trip home from Florida.
“I saw it firsthand,” he said of vehicles passing “three or four cars at one time.”
Drivers know there’s no law enforcement on the road, he said.
“We will definitely be taking a closer look at this,” Atkinson said.