Crime & Safety

Student Driver Crash Causes Gas Leak and Evacuation

A 16-year-old driver on a learner's permit crashed into the garage at her home, shearing a gas line.

A car operated by a teenage girl learning to drive crashed through the garage door of her family's home in Bowleys Quarters, shearing a gas line and forcing the evacuation of residents of eight townhouses Friday afternoon. There were no injuries and no explosion or fire as a result of the subsequent gas leak, according to Baltimore County fire officials.

The 16-year-old was pulling into the driveway with her mother in the car when the vehicle crashed through the first-floor garage door of the family's three-story townhome in the the 1500 block of Hunting Fields Road shortly after 3:30 p.m., Baltimore County Fire Department Battalion Chief Kyrle Preis said.

"She was slowing down and tapping the brake when her foot slipped off and she hit the gas pedal," Preis said. "After the accident, she did have the presence of mind to put the car in park and turn off the engine before she and her mother extricated themselves from the vehicle. Otherwise, who knows what would've happened?"

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While there were no injuries in connection with the accident, one local man was taken to Franklin Square Hospital for an unrelated medical condition, Preis said.

The home where the accident took place is part of a group of eight townhomes on the block. Evacuated residents from all but the home where the accident occurred were able to return to their houses later Friday afternoon.

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Fourteen pieces of county fire equipment responded to the scene, along with BGE personnel.


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