There would be no rescue, a pedestrian's fate sealed upon impact and police could only shield his body from view after a man trying to cross Merritt Boulevard was stopped short by an oncoming car.
"I saw it on my way out, and I was wondering, 'Uh oh. What happened now?' and then I hear it was a pedestrian. It seems to be getting to be a regular thing," said Dennis Michael of Dundalk.
"But it didn't keep you from crossing in virtually the same place?"
"That was hours later, and I got off the bus on the other side, so I have no choice."
Police say the call came in about 7:30 a.m. Friday in the middle of the morning rush hour along one of the busiest routes in the county.
"It was a 68-year-old man that was attempting to cross Merritt Boulevard and when he was crossing Merritt Boulevard, he was not in the crosswalk is what our initial investigation is revealing and there was a woman travelling southbound in a vehicle, a 2008 Nissan Sentra," said Cpl. Shawn Vinson of the Baltimore County Police Department.
The driver stopped to render aid, but the victim's fate had been sealed.
In its safety campaigns, the county has warned people that 80 percent of pedestrian crashes fall on the person afoot who typically fails to walk in crosswalks or to avoid distractions or to look both ways.
In this case, it appears all of those factors were at play, along with an absence of convenient places to cross a very busy road.
"You could walk down here for half a mile before you got a place to cross and I'm not sure they even have crosswalk buttons to be honest with you," said Michael.
The driver has not been cited in this incident, and police are withholding the victim's name until they can notify his family of his death.
