WASHINGTON — A driver and passenger are in the hospital after a MetroAccess car struck parked cars and tipped onto its side Saturday morning.
The crash happened just before 8 a.m. on Rock Creek Church Road Northwest and Varnum Street Northwest, according to Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA). A spokesperson said the car struck two parked cars in the area before tipping on its side. One customer was on board at the time. Both the driver of the car and the passenger were taken to the hospital for injuries sustained in the crash, WMATA said. The severity of those injuries are not known at this time.
MetroAccess is a shared-ride, door-to-door, paratransit service for people whose disability prevents them from using bus or rail, according to Metro's website.
Alan Wehler, a Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner for D.C.'s Ward 4, posted photos of the crash scene on Twitter.
The cause of the crash is not known at this time. No other vehicles were involved.
Stephanie Lawrence lives in the neighborhood. Her car was one of the vehicles hit Saturday morning. The force of the impact sent a parked car crashing into Lawrence's car. She says it's not the first time her sedan has been hit.
"This corner tends to have a lot of accidents. The second car that was hit has been hit before. There have been numerous accidents. We really need a speed bump because a lot of these drivers go around this curve too fast and it puts all of us at risk," Lawrence said.
Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner for the part of Ward 4 where the crash happened, Jonah Goodman, said he's been asking D.C.'s Department of Transportation for changes at the intersection of Rock Creek Church Road and Varnum Street in Northwest since 2017. He has been sharing his proposals on social media.
"We have asked them to study a controlled all ways stop here to allow people to cross, but to also allow Varnum traffic to cross to Rock Creek without any issues," Goodman said in one Twitter video from March.
DDOT has installed center line posts on Rock Creek Church Road. Neighbors say the plastic dividers are constantly getting hit, some have snapped in half. Residents say they help alert drivers, but the speeding issue has yet to be resolved.
Neighbors are considering writing up a letter with demands to present to Ward 4 Councilmember Janese Lewis George and DDOT. Their biggest concern is that next time, it's not a car that gets hit, but a pedestrian.