Bethesda residents and members of the Walt Whitman High School community are calling on the State Highway Administration to install a traffic signal at the River Road intersection where a student and his parents were killed Saturday night in a two-car collision.
The crash, which left a fourth member of the Buarque de Macedo family—also a student at Whitman—with serious injuries, elicited an outpouring of grief and some anger Sunday night during a candlelight vigil at the school.
Community members said they have long called for a traffic signal at the spot, which is used to access and leave the Bethesda school’s parking lot via Braeburn Parkway.
“For years, the Bannockburn and Whitman communities have asked the Maryland State Highway Administration to install traffic signals at this dangerous intersection,” wrote Whitman junior Melody Lee in a change.org petition that had nearly 3,000 supporters by early Monday afternoon. “My family and I, as well as many other families in the neighborhood, must go through this intersection almost every day, where our safety is especially at risk.”
The State Highway Administration (SHA) released a statement Monday afternoon expressing its condolences to the family and said the agency would review the final police report. Montgomery County police are still investigating the crash. It routinely takes investigators weeks to assess whether to issue traffic or criminal charges in vehicle collisions.
“We cannot speculate about the cause of the crash and we need to have the facts concerning what happened,” read the SHA statement. “SHA engineers will review the intersection operations and conduct a new traffic study.”
The SHA has jurisdiction over River Road, which at the location of the accident is a four-lane divided road with a speed limit of 45 mph. The Bannockburn neighborhood is on the west side of the road, a major thoroughfare to and from the Capital Beltway.
The SHA takes the volume of traffic in an intersection into account when determining if an intersection merits a traffic signal.
The SHA on Monday referred to a previous study of the intersection that showed “a heavy period of left turns from eastbound [River Road] onto Braeburn Parkway in the morning for a 40-45 minute window,” saying that period coincides with students and parents accessing the high school.
But the SHA said at other times, there is little traffic at the intersection.
“There is relatively light traffic to and from the side streets and a low number of left turns from [River Road] onto Braeburn,” the SHA said. “SHA’s previous study did not conclude that a signal would be warranted.”
The SHA said that it added pavement markings to clarify turning movements at the intersection and restricted certain turning movements during specific times. It also pointed to the signalized intersection of Whittier Boulevard and River Road, a few hundred feet to the east, as an access point to the high school.
To many in the neighborhood, the state should’ve already added a signal to the intersection.
“This is long overdue. River Road is a speedway,” wrote Bethesda resident Krista Adams on the petition. “You must install a light immediately. No more needless fatalities. Those are our children, friends, and neighbors.”
Michael Buarque de Macedo, the students’ father who police said was driving Saturday night, was attempting to turn left from eastbound River Road to a service road that becomes Braeburn Parkway and leads directly to the school’s parking lot.
Police said 20-year-old Potomac resident Ogulcan Atakoglu was driving his vehicle on westbound River Road and collided with the family’s Chevrolet Volt as Michael Buarque de Macedo was trying to cross to the service road.
The family’s vehicle ended up off the roadway. Fifty-two-year-old Michael Buarque de Macedo, his 18 year-old son Thomas Michael Buarque de Macedo who was in the front passenger seat, and his 53-year-old wife Alessandra M. Buarque de Macedo who was in the rear passenger seat were pronounced dead at the scene.
Helena Buarque de Macedo, a 15-year-old Whitman student who was also in the rear passenger seat, is in stable condition at a local hospital, according to Principal Alan Goodwin.
“Tonight is a night to mourn, but we will revisit where this accident took place, that we’ve been trying to get people to understand is a dangerous intersection, regardless of what attempts people make to cross it safely,” Goodwin said at the vigil Sunday night. “I do not know exactly what happened that night. I don’t know if we’ll ever know. But we know that is a dangerous intersection and we will as a community be revisiting that entire issue and hopefully getting a better ear than we’ve had in the past.”
There is also a nonsignalized pedestrian crosswalk near the intersection. According to state law, drivers must yield to pedestrians using the crosswalk. But pedestrians, including many students who use the route to get to and from school, say drivers are traveling at high speeds and rarely stop.
“This is a terrible intersection. The community has been asking for a light for years,” wrote Bethesda resident Terese Noenickx on the online petition. “My daughter’s friends were lucky to walk away from a collision there last year, but the victims in this latest accident aren’t so lucky.”
Whitman student Sebastian Sola-Sole asked why there is a traffic signal at the nearby intersection of River Road and Royal Dominion Drive, which functions as the entrance to the Holton-Arms School, and not at River Road near Braeburn Parkway.
“I’m signing because I live in the neighborhood, have often taken that same left hand turn, and understand how dangerous it is without any traffic signal,” Bethesda resident Malvina Martin wrote. “My sons will be entering Whitman HS in the near future and likely will be driving, and I’m concerned about their safety.”
