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Residents press Allegany County to act on State Route 51 safety; officials plan work session with sheriff
Summary
Multiple residents told the Allegany County Commissioners that State Route 51 is increasingly dangerous and urged enforcement and safety improvements, including speed cameras. County officials said a work session with the sheriff is tentatively scheduled and that changing the county's 2019 law on speed cameras would require legislative action.
Multiple residents at the Allegany County Commissioners meeting urged officials to take steps to make State Route 51 safer, citing frequent speeding, dangerous passing on hills and curves, and a pattern of near-miss and fatal crashes.
"It's time. It is long past time to make route 51 safe," said Sandy Lipholt, a resident, who described a family member killed in a crash 38 years ago and said response times and traffic volumes have not improved. Lipholt and others asked the county to pursue enforcement and engineering measures, including speed cameras, better signage and law-enforcement presence.
Ray Miller, a resident of Old Town, described repeated long lines of traffic behind slow-moving trucks and multiple close calls, saying drivers pass on shoulders and cross the center line on curves. "They don't observe the the speed limit because I it tells me at times, I'm running the speed limit of 55, and I'm riding my bumper," Miller told commissioners.
Glenn Stallman, another resident, said school-zone signage remains missing on Cash Valley Road and urged immediate steps to reduce speed near schools. Judy Hodel said the road is narrow, has steep ditches and blind entrances, and that the increase in nonlocal traffic routed by GPS makes the corridor more dangerous.
Administrator Bennett told the board the sheriff is tentatively lined up for a work session with commissioners in about two weeks to discuss policing options for the corridor, and that staff will raise the Route 51 safety concerns next week when the Maryland Department of Transportation holds its CTP tour in the county. "We're certainly aware of it, and we're beginning the process of kind of trying to work through it," Bennett said.
A county staff member noted that legislation enacted in 2019 prohibits speed cameras under county ordinances, and that commissioners would have to take legislative action to repeal that restriction if they choose to pursue cameras.
Commissioner Atkinson, who recently drove the route, said he observed the same dangerous passing behavior and said the board will take a closer look. No formal policy changes were adopted at the meeting; commissioners said they would report back after the scheduled work session with the sheriff and discussions with state officials.
The commissioners' next public meeting was announced for Oct. 16 at 3 p.m. at the county fairgrounds.
