OCEAN CITY, Md. -- 16 year old Tyler Walsh was hit by a motorcycle on Friday, September 13th. The crash is shining a spotlight on an event that saw a rise in collisions.
Bikefest has come and gone. It's a loud and largely attended event that this year leaves behind an ugly memory for those who are close to Walsh.
"We're doing better than we were Friday," said Dalton Henderson, one of Walsh's best friends. "We got a lot of news he's getting better and better, we all know he's in the best place he can be, we're just worried, want to know what's going on obviously."
Tyler's accident has the attention of the Ocean City community as well. Melanie Walker was driving down Philadelphia Avenue when she noticed Tyler's family putting up teddy bears at the scene of the crash. Those bears were hung up with ribbons in Tyler's favorite color orange.
"I made a U-turn and came because it just breaks my heart that this young man is in such poor condition right now," said Walker.
The Ocean City Police Department sent us data that shows there were more collisions during this year's event compared to last, but that it was safer in a few ways.
Data Breakdown: (2023/2024)
Officer CFS(calls for service): 500/502
Citizen CFS: 261/301
Total CFS: 761/803
Traffic Stops: 147/179
Traffic Citations: 157/108
Traffic Warnings: 130/154
Total Traffic Enforcement: 287/262
Collisions: 12/17
Total Arrests: 32/20
Drug Arrests: 3/2
Weapon Arrests: 2/4
DUI Arrests: 8/4
One of the collisions included a separate incident where a motorcyclist had to be flown to shock trauma for non-life threatening injuries after a crash on Coastal Highway.
On Philadelphia Avenue, the color orange on the ribbons and the color orange on t-shirts worn by Henderson and Caden Shepard, another one of Walsh's best friends, show the support that he has from friends and family.
"He's not going to let something like this take him, he knows what he's got to do and he's doing it right now and we're all by his side," said Shepard.
Walsh is a junior at Stephen Decatur High School. Worcester County Public Schools sent us the following:
"The entire Worcester County Public Schools community is sending its thoughts and prayers to Tyler and his family at this difficult time. Additionally, we have activated several resources for our impacted students to ensure they receive any emotional support they may need. While we appreciate our entire community for its continued support, we kindly ask that everyone respect the space and peace our students and staff require to process these difficult circumstances."
Ocean City did not have a special event zone in place. The zones lower the speed limit and give the police more authority to keep traffic calm.
As for why a zone was not implemented, OCPD Captain James Grady, Patrol Division Commander provided us with the statement below:
The answer is we could put the Special Event Zone in play during bike week. Historically, we have not issued one during Bike Week because it has not been needed during Bike Week. “The bike week participants, for the most part, are well behaved on the roadway and do not cause a public safety concern to the town and people on the roadways” commented Captain James Grady.
“During the vehicle motor events, we’ve seen an increase in traffic law violations, such as; speeding, race contest, aggressive driving, spinning tires, and negligent driving. We typically don’t see these traffic related violations during bike week. In addition, during the motor vehicle events we have a large population of spectators who gather along the roadways to watch the motor vehicle activities. We don’t have huge amounts of spectators gathered along the roadway during the bike week event. One of the things a SEZ does is lower the speed limit throughout town, which makes the large volume of spectators who gather along the highways safer.”
We have a Motor Event Task Force meeting coming up next week, this is something that could be discussed at the meeting. I’m not 100% if it is an agenda item or not but usually Chief Buzzuro will give a brief update on Bike Week.
