Thirty-nine people were killed in motor vehicle collisions across Maryland in September, according to preliminary data released by the Maryland Department of Transportation.
The fatalities included 15 drivers, three passengers, 13 pedestrians, three bicyclists and five motorcyclists. September’s total represents a decline from the same month last year, when 54 people were killed in crashes across the state.
In Montgomery County, traffic fatalities have already surpassed the total recorded during all of 2025. The September 30 death of 62-year-old Saijuan Chen, who was struck by a hit-and-run driver in Aspen Hill, brought the county’s 2026 traffic fatality total to 40. Montgomery County recorded 39 traffic fatalities during all of 2025, according to the Montgomery County Police Department’s 2025 Annual Report on Crime and Safety.
According to a Montgomery Fix review of county data, this year’s 40 deaths include 16 pedestrians, 13 drivers, six passengers, four motorcyclists and one bicyclist. The 16 pedestrian deaths have also surpassed the 14 recorded in Montgomery County during all of 2025 and match the highest annual total since the county adopted Vision Zero in 2016. Six of this year’s pedestrian fatalities involved hit-and-run crashes, also matching the highest annual total during the county’s Vision Zero era.
The Montgomery Fix tally includes two fatalities that had not previously been reported as deaths by Montgomery County Police. One involved a pedestrian who was critically injured after being struck at New Hampshire Avenue and Powder Mill Road in Hillandale on July 22. The other involved a pedestrian struck near Georgia Avenue and Seminary Road in Wheaton in August.
The county’s Vision Zero initiative, adopted in 2016, has a stated goal of eliminating traffic-related deaths and serious injuries by 2030.
Statewide, 328 people have been killed in motor vehicle crashes through the end of September, compared with 369 during the same period in 2025, a decrease of 41 deaths.
Log in
