Crime & Safety
Driver In Bel Air Bypass Crash Speaks Out: Report
The woman driving the car that crashed into the guardrail on the Bel Air Bypass was reportedly spared by centimeters.
BEL AIR, MD — When a car crashed into the guardrail on the Bel Air Bypass recently, passersby said they could not believe that the driver came out unscathed. Neither could she, according to a report.
Tiffany Greenwell, 26, a mother of two, told ABC 2 News that she was on the way to get her car repaired after leaving Harford Community College when her axle broke and steering wheel locked.
The crash happened around 11:45 a.m. on Friday, the Bel Air Volunteer Fire Company reported. It was on the Bel Air Bypass north of the MD 24/US 1 split.
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When Greenwell lost control of the vehicle and crashed into the metal barrier, she told ABC 2 News: "The guardrail had me pinned in my seat...the paramedic said it was like 3 centimeters from cutting my head off."
The guardrail went "clean through the engine compartment into the driver compartment," the Bel Air Volunteer Fire Company reported. "Driver walked away. Very lucky person."
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Bel Air Patch Facebook readers concurred.
"She had a guardian angel riding with her," one reader commented. "People think that bypass is a speedway."
The driver said she felt something greater than herself saved her on Friday as well.
"There was an angel," Greenwell told ABC 2 News: "...because the guardrail should have gone all the way through."
Guardrails were installed on the bypass three years after a crash on Nov. 7, 2008, that took the lives of a 31-year-old Perry Hall woman and her 8-year-old son. The State Highway Administration installed the 3.5-mile stretch of rail by the end of 2011, The Aegis reported.
To honor the victims of the head-on crash, family members created the Katie and Wil Brady Memorial Foundation, which has sponsored scholarships and hosted benefits to support various causes.
The foundation gives a synopsis of what happened in the crash on its website, with this statement: "Although it is not the foundation’s intent to relive this day, we think it is important for everyone to understand what a senseless tragedy this was. Since the accident we are happy to report that community leaders have stepped up and made major upgrades to the Bel Air Bypass...ensuring that a repeat of this accident can never happen to another family."
Photo courtesy of John Gallagher, Bel Air Volunteer Fire Company.
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