Liberty Road in Baltimore County has killed two pedestrians in about a year at intersections less than two miles apart. Loretta Pretlow, 67, was struck and killed crossing at Milford Mill Road on Valentine's Day 2025. In early 2026, John Bates Sr., 60, was killed crossing near Old Court Road by a driver who briefly fled the scene before returning.1 These aren't isolated events. They sit on a map that Baltimore City and Baltimore County planners have already drawn in detail, using crash data that goes back to 2016.
Baltimore City's high injury network
Baltimore's Department of Transportation calls its worst streets the High Injury Network, a small share of roadway that carries most of the damage. Under the city's 2024-2025 Vision Zero Action Plan, 52% of fatal and serious injury crashes happen on just 7% of city streets.2 In 2024, Baltimore recorded 64 traffic deaths, more than half of them pedestrians, cyclists, or scooter riders, along with 508 serious injuries, up from 46 deaths and 437 serious injuries the year before.2 The Baltimore Banner's review of the draft network found that Pennsylvania Avenue in West Baltimore carries the worst crash score on the list, followed by North Avenue and the stretch of North Eutaw Street between Baltimore Street and Martin Luther King Boulevard.3
The city's 2022-2026 Strategic Highway Safety Plan, built on Baltimore Police Department reports from 2016 through 2020, mapped much the same pattern earlier. Injury and fatal crashes cluster downtown and along the entire North Avenue corridor, around Edmondson Avenue at Monroe Street and Fulton Street, at Edmondson and Hilton, and along the eastern stretches of Fayette Street and Orleans Street. Fatalities specifically tend to fall outside downtown: on North Avenue, Martin Luther King Boulevard, Edmondson and Wilkens Avenues to the west, the McElderry Park neighborhood to the east, and Patapsco Avenue to the south.4
Where the crashes cluster
Pedestrians make up only 4% to 6% of all Baltimore crashes but 30% to 47% of fatal ones in any given year between 2016 and 2020.4 Bicycle crashes fell from 238 in 2016 to 156 in 2020, yet cyclists and scooter riders, involved in under 1% of all crashes, account for roughly 2% of injuries and deaths.4 Statewide, Baltimore City alone averages 204 bicycle and pedalcycle crashes a year, more than a quarter of every such crash in Maryland, and the six-county Baltimore metropolitan region accounts for 52.8% of all bicycle and pedalcycle crashes statewide, well ahead of the Washington, D.C. suburbs' 34.3%.5
A 2021 hot spot study commissioned by BCDOT and conducted by Mead & Hunt, using 2017 to 2019 crash data weighted for frequency, rate, and severity, ranked the city's worst pedestrian and bicycle crash intersections. The top five were:4
- Belair Road and Erdman Avenue
- West North Avenue and North Fulton Avenue
- East Baltimore Street and St. Paul Street
- East Lombard Street and Light Street
- West North Avenue and North Howard Street
The same study's worst pedestrian and bicycle crash corridors were Pennsylvania Avenue, two separate segments of West North Avenue, Hilton Parkway, and South Monroe Street.4 Most of these locations sit near major pedestrian generators, including the West Baltimore MARC station, Mondawmin Mall, Lexington Market, and the Penn-North Metro stop.4
The engineering detail behind these rankings explains a lot. A posted speed of 30 mph covers 90% of the hot spot intersections, and vulnerable road user fatalities increase sharply once speed limits reach 25 mph or higher.4 On the worst pedestrian and bicycle segments, 60% have no crosswalk anywhere within the segment, and 60% force people to walk more than a quarter mile between marked crossings.4 Nearly 40% of all Baltimore crashes happen in or near an intersection.4
The toll hasn't let up. Maryland recorded 478 traffic deaths in 2025, and Baltimore City accounted for 43 of them, 11 of whom were pedestrians.6 In 2026, a 3-year-old named Jordan Bright was killed on Pratt Street, and 19-year-old Brandon McMurrin was killed on Washington Street in East Baltimore. A cyclist was also killed on Orleans Street, prompting a vigil there in late March.6 BCDOT's draft Vision Zero Action Plan, funded through a $1.005 million Safe Streets and Roads for All grant, lists 11 recommendations, including better data sharing between the department and city police and stepped up enforcement, aiming to end traffic deaths and serious injuries by 2041.2
Baltimore County's dangerous corridors
Baltimore County's problem roads look different, more suburban arterial than urban grid, but the pattern holds. Reisterstown Road (MD 140) through Pikesville carries about 36,400 vehicles a day between the Baltimore Beltway and Old Court Road, and roughly 29,000 a day between Old Court Road and Slade Avenue, according to 2024 State Highway Administration traffic counts.7 The Old Court Road intersection alone logged eight crashes in the first half of 2026, and on July 9, 2026, an MTA bus struck multiple vehicles and a FedEx office along the corridor, injuring more than 30 people.7 Reisterstown Road works as both a state highway and Pikesville's walkable main street, and that combination puts drivers and pedestrians in close, high speed contact.7
Liberty Road (MD 26) carries its own history beyond the two deaths noted above. Residents near the Milford Mill Road and Old Court Road intersections describe a corridor where, in the words of one, "there's so much traffic going and coming, and people are speeding down here," despite existing signage and flashing beacons.1
Maryland's State Highway Administration has responded with a slate of funded safety projects in the county, listed in MDOT's December 2025 Vision Zero report, filed under Transportation Article section 8-1007:8
- MD 26 (Liberty Road) between Washington Avenue and Owings Mills Boulevard
- MD 140 (Reisterstown Road) between Rosewood Lane and Westminster Pike
- MD 150 (Eastern Avenue) between Martin Boulevard and the Southeast Freeway
- MD 542 (Loch Raven Boulevard) between the Baltimore City line and Cromwell Bridge Road
- MD 157 (Merritt Boulevard) between Merritt Boulevard and North Point Road
What the state is doing about it
Separately, Transportation Article section 8-204.2 requires the State Highway Administration to review the roadway infrastructure at every pedestrian or bicycle fatality on a state road within six months of the crash. In 2025, the SHA completed 29 of these fatal infrastructure reviews and recommended 26 improvements as a result.8 The agency obligated more than $51 million in federal Highway Safety Improvement Program funds in federal fiscal year 2025, with over $7 million earmarked specifically for vulnerable road user projects. It has budgeted roughly $45 million, including about $21 million for vulnerable road users, for federal fiscal year 2026.8 Statewide, 582 people were killed on Maryland roads in 2024, a six percent drop from the year before.8
After a crash
None of this engineering catches up overnight. If you or someone you love is hit while walking or biking on any of these corridors, from Pennsylvania Avenue to Reisterstown Road, the claims process starts immediately, long before the next round of safety funding arrives. An attorney experienced with Maryland pedestrian and bicycle cases can help sort out fault, insurance coverage, and deadlines while you focus on recovery. You can find one through the legal directory.
This article is general information, not legal advice.
Sources
-
WMAR2 News, "Another life lost crossing Liberty Road," https://www.wmar2news.com/news/region/baltimore-county/another-life-lost-crossing-liberty-road
-
Baltimore City Department of Transportation, "Vision Zero Action Plan," Streets of Baltimore, https://streetsofbaltimore.com/visionzero
-
The Baltimore Banner, "Baltimore City crashes: Where the worst traffic accidents occur," https://www.thebanner.com/community/transportation/baltimore-crash-accidents-car-pedestrians-roads-W6C72ZN4ZJDWXNFXSD56CP7XXU/
-
Baltimore City Department of Transportation, "Baltimore City Strategic Highway Safety Plan 2022-2026," https://zerodeathsmd.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Baltimore-City-SHSP.pdf
-
Maryland Department of Transportation Motor Vehicle Administration, Maryland Highway Safety Office, "Bicycle/Pedacycle Program Area Brief," Zero Deaths Maryland, https://zerodeathsmd.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/FFY22_Bicycle_ProgramAreaBrief-Data_Final.pdf
-
The Baltimore Banner, "Baltimore's traffic safety plan has a big goal: No road deaths," https://www.thebanner.com/community/transportation/baltimore-traffic-crash-safety-hoboken-transportation-SOZBLFI7SJHWVBAAUD63XQE2OQ/
-
The Baltimore Banner, "After Pikesville bus crash, some wonder: Is Reisterstown Road too dangerous?," https://www.thebanner.com/community/transportation/pikesville-reisterstown-road-mta-bus-crash-O7S5BLU66BCKDKZZN5IK7OFTNM/
-
Maryland Department of Transportation, Maryland Highway Safety Office, "Zero Deaths Maryland and Vision Zero," December 2025, https://zerodeathsmd.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/VisionZeroReport_2025.pdf