Pedestrian Who Ran Across Ritchie Highway Hit By Car: Police

ARNOLD, MD — A local man is in critical but stable condition at a Baltimore hospital after being hit by a car Friday while running across Ritchie Highway (Route 2), according to the Anne Arundel County police.

The police responded at about 2:39 p.m. to the report of a pedestrian being struck on southbound Ritchie Highway just north of Arnold Road.

A 2011 BMW 550i sedan driven by Sean J. Neilan, 49, of Chester entered the left-turn lane for Arnold Road when the pedestrian ran from the Arnold Station shopping center and across five lanes of traffic into that lane, the police said. The pedestrian, Brian Lamar Scott, 27, of Arnold, was struck by the BMW and thrown into the median.

Scott was flown by a police helicopter to the R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore with critical, life-threatening injuries, the police said. Neilan, the driver, was not injured.

"The primary cause of the crash appears to be the pedestrian’s failure to yield right of way to vehicular traffic when crossing outside a crosswalk," the police said in a statement. They noted that a nearby intersection has a crosswalk with pedestrian signals.

Neither speed nor alcohol played a role in the accident, the police said. The Police Department's Traffic Safety Section is investigating the collision, they said, "and any charges are pending review by the State’s Attorney."

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