Around 5 p.m. Thursday evening, emergency services were summoned to the scene of a four vehicle crash at the residential intersection of Copley Avenue and Post Office Road in St. Charles. 

 

EMS at the scene.
 

 Cleaning up debris.
pictures by A. Dailey, The Bay Net staff

Witnesses told the Bay Net that the adult female driver of a blue Ford Escort traveling through the intersection struck a white Ford Explorer broadside while it waited in the intersection to make a left-hand turn onto Copley. 

Accident victim Gary Best told the Bay Net, the impact from the Escort “threw” the SUV and its four young adult female occupants “into the air, nearly tipping it over”.  The Explorer careened into the hood of a silver sedan, waiting to make a left turn off eastbound Copley Avenue, causing it to rear-end the front bumper of the Bests’ yellow sports car. 

Three Charles County EMS ambulances were at the scene to take the injured occupants of the Escort and Explorer to Civista Medical Center in La Plata.  One of the occupants of the SUV was air-lifted to P.G. county hospital as a precautionary measure to check out a possible pelvic fracture.  The drivers of the silver sedan and yellow sports car were checked at the scene and released.  All of the victims were conscious and none of the injuries were life-threatening. 

County police and members of the Waldorf VFD substation 12 rescued the victims from their cars.  The accident stopped traffic at that intersection for over an hour.

The intersection at Copley and Post Office Road is notorious for its poor visibility and speeding traffic.  The thick undergrowth at the base of the trees in the median on Post Office Road makes driving through that intersection quite hazardous.

 

Anna Dailey is the Bay Net’s associate editor for Charles County, covering politics and education issues.  To contact her about this article or other events comment below or email annadailey@thebaynet.com.