Marred by the tragedy that left a local 16-year-old boy fighting for his life in Shock Trauma in Baltimore last Friday and a fatal motorcycle crash on Route 50 on Saturday, Ocean City BikeFest last weekend nevertheless saw about the same level of police activity as it did the year before, according to statistics supplied by the Ocean City Police Department.
The Friday hit-and-run accident on 12th Street and Philadelphia Avenue that critically injured Stephen Decatur High School student Tyler Walsh (see story on page 00) sent shockwaves throughout the region and has led to public questioning about whether the Town of Ocean City should institute the “Special Event Zone” traffic laws it imposes during the resort’s semi-annual car cruises.
For better or for worse, however, traffic enforcement data supplied by the department this week was on par with statistics compiled for the 2023 event.
Insert Quark stats box here with no border. It’s already tabbed to fit.
Of the 17 collisions that occurred in Ocean City during the event, two besides the 12th Street hit-and-run were listed as serious.
The investigation continues into the first of two collisions that occurred last Friday afternoon, when police were called to 136th Street just before 4 p.m. and found an overturned car on its roof and a motorcycle in the road.
Deputy Communications Manager Ashley Miller said the occupant of the car was trapped inside, but that police and good Samaritans at the scene freed that individual before Ocean City Emergency Services arrived.
The motorcycle operator suffered severe but non-life-threatening injuries and was flown to Shock Trauma, Miller said.
About two-and-a-half hours later, at 6:34 p.m., police were called to 28th Street and Philadelphia Avenue, where a motorcyclist who failed to yield the right of way apparently caused another vehicle to collide with parked cars.
Police said the motorcycle entered northbound Philadelphia Avenue from the 28th Street shopping center but failed to make way for another a vehicle traveling north.
That vehicle apparently accelerated into parked cars at the 28th Street shopping center, causing enough structural damage to a restaurant there that it was forced to close. The motorcycle operator suffered minor injuries.
On Saturday, a motorcycle collision on Route 50 and Hall Road claimed the life of Jason Irizarry, 40 of Dover, Pennsylvania, the Maryland State Police reported.
Can we please count better? What happened to the teenager struck by a biker traveling 55mph in 35mph zone walking across Coastal Hwy that was reported in the Coastal Point? Maybe not killed doesn’t qualify?
Leave Bike Week alone, it is tamest motor event of all season. Town businesses made more money and staff made more in tips than they make during any other event all year. If you discourage bikers from coming to OC, you are taking money out of people’s pockets that are actually willing to show up and work a job.
I don’t deny the event brings in money, but it is just so silly to see a bunch of overgrown children playing dress up / make believe biker. Halloween isn’t for another month.
Get a life 4:15 and don’t worry what others are doing.