Teen was driving this Volkswagon when she failed to yield to another driver on Dares Beach Road and was killed in front of Calvert High School. Photo courtesy of Prince Frederick Vol. Fire Dept.
Teen was driving this Volkswagon when she failed to
yield to another driver on Dares Beach Road and was killed in front of Calvert High
School. Photo courtesy of Prince Frederick Vol. Fire Dept.
By Kenneth C. Rossignol
ST. MARY’S TODAY
PRINCE FREDERICK — A planned mock crash for Calvert High School students on Oct. 22nd for juniors and seniors was postponed on Thursday after a horrible crash took place the previous day in front of Calvert when a teen driver died due to her failing to yield the right of way to an oncoming Jeep.
Maryland State Police report that on 09-29-04, approximately 2:30 PM, a crash involving two vehicles occurred in front of Calvert High School, at the intersection of Dorsey Road and Dares Beach Road, Prince Frederick.
State Police report that the driver of one of the vehicles, Jessica Gelatka, 17, of Prince Frederick, was killed in the collision. She was a senior at Calvert High. The driver of the second vehicle, Loretta Galloway, 59, of Bowie, was flown to PG Hospital with non-life threatening injuries and later released.
Troopers from the Prince Frederick Barrack have conducted a preliminary investigation and have determined that Gelatka, operating a 1996 Volkswagen GTI, pulled out onto Dares Beach Road from Dorsey Road, attempted to turn left and travel east on Dares Beach Road, and was struck by Galloway, operating a 1997 Jeep, who was traveling westbound.
"To date, this is the third traffic fatality this year in Calvert County involving a juvenile," said Lt. Homer Rich, commander of the Prince Frederick Barracks in a prepared statement. " The Maryland State Police and the Calvert County Sheriff’s Office would like to remind parents and students to be cautious at all times while operating their vehicles."
After school and even before school crashes in the region have claimed the lives of teen drivers from St. Mary’s -Ryken High School in St. Mary’s County and Northern High School and Patuxent High School in Calvert.
The mock crash will be rescheduled for another month but a mock crash will be staged at Patuxent, according to Debbie Jennings, Calvert County Community Traffic Safety Program Coordinator.
Mock crashes will be conducted on October 13 at Patuxent High School for all grades starting at 7:30 am.
One of the guest speakers will be Royce Miller, owner of the Maryland International Raceway who will talk to the students about the differences between drag racing on a track and on a highway.
Firefighters, police officers and prosecutors will also take part to guide the students through every aspect of crashes and the results on those who are in the wrecks, what happens to at fault drivers and to their families.
An after-school drag race by students leaving Patuxent in 1998 resulted in the deaths of four people. A kid operating a canary yellow Mustang given to him by his father, lost control as he raced another car and hit a U-Haul truck head on, causing the truck driver to die as well as himself and his two passengers.
"Nothing that I could do in the parking lot at CHS would make the impression that yesterday’s crash in front of the high school did," Jennings told ST. MARY’S TODAY. " Instead of having a crash scene, we are going to try to do a "driver’s ed - revisited" program, where we talk about the types of crashes that this age group typically experiences, as well as what they need to do to prevent what happened yesterday. At this time, Patuxent’s mock crash is still on for October 13. "