Two Women Injured By Hit-and-Run Driver

Two women were seriously injured Saturday in a hit-and-run incident as they tried to cross a street in the Silver Spring area, Montgomery County police said.

The incident occurred a few minutes after 10 a.m. at Capitol View and Leafy avenues as the women were trying to cross Capitol View, police said. Police said it appeared that they were in a crosswalk when they were struck.

The women were not identified by name, and police said only that they were from Silver Spring. They said one was 29 and the other 22.

The women apparently were crossing Capitol View from east to west when they were struck in the southbound lanes.

Neighborhood residents noted that there are bus stops on both sides of Capitol View at the intersection and said the women might have been trying to catch a bus headed toward downtown Silver Spring.

The site is about a half-mile north of the Capital Beltway and a mile west of Georgia Avenue.

Although the women's injuries were described as not life-threatening, a police statement indicated that the incident was harrowing.

The vehicle "dragged the 22-year-old victim approximately 113 feet," the statement said. Then it "ran over her." The 29-year-old woman "was dragged approximately 83 feet," police said.

"I heard a loud bang and went out," said one woman who lives nearby.

She said one woman was lying in the street and the other near a sign that gave the speed limit on that stretch of Capitol View as 25 mph.

"It's a fairly dangerous section for pedestrians," said one man who lives nearby. He and several others said cars often travel well in excess of 25 miles an hour on the stretch of Capitol View just north and south of Leafy.

For motorists headed south on Capitol View, the stretch provides "a long downhill straightaway," one said.

"It's really, really bad," the resident said. "It's been an issue."

The man said that after the crash, he found a cellphone battery along with a cellphone about 40 feet away.

The neighborhood resident who saw the two women after they had been hit said it appeared that both were conscious.

She said black flip-flop sandals were lying a few feet from the woman who was in the roadway. A "piece of a vehicle" was also in the street, the woman said.

Police said the front grill of a Toyota was found at the scene. The vehicle was believed to be a black pickup truck or sport-utility vehicle, they said.