Auto Accident Near Glenelg High School

The Baltimore Sun reports today that a Hagerstown man was critically injured in a single-car accident early yesterday morning when his vehicle crashed into a guardrail on Route 32 near Burntwoods Road in Glenelg, Maryland. (Howard County) at 2:45 a.m. Obviously, if it is in the Baltimore Sun, it is a serious accident. The driver, who was not wearing a seat belt, was flown by medevac helicopter to Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where he was in critical condition yesterday.

Like the rest of us, I read these reports of auto accidents in Maryland every day and don’t spend a lot of time focusing on the human tragedy that is being reported. There is a good reason for this. You can eat your entire life away reading and internalizing sad news accounts. (See David Foster Wallace, who I think is the greatest nonfiction writer of my generation, on this one, may he rest in peace.)

This accident struck me quickly because, throughout middle school and high school, I drove by this intersection every school day. It never ceases to amaze me how much more of an impact familiarity with the intersection has on your attention span on these stories.