A 14 year-old girl was killed at 5:45 pm Friday while trying to cross Ritchie Highway (Route 2) on her bicycle in Pasadena, in Anne Arundel County. Police say the girl was at fault since she was wearing dark clothing, did not have lights and was not at a marked crossing. As a result, the driver will not face charges.

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The crash location was just three blocks east of the Baltimore & Annapolis Trail, and only a few blocks west of the girl’s home. Her mother told the Annapolis Capital that she hopes their neighborhood’s traffic-calming efforts might gain more attention as a result of her daughter’s death:

There is going to be someone else killed here if they don’t do something. Someone has to hear me, hear Ashley’s voice. We need to save another family from feeling what we are feeling. We need some kind of effort.

The Baltimore Sun calls the girl’s death an “accident” in its headline. Police said that that the intersection isn’t “designed, marked or engineered as a pedestrian crossing.” What goes unmentioned is that there is no marked crossing anywhere nearby. The closest traffic signal, at Eastwest Boulevard, has no crosswalks or sidewalks.

Despite its location in a residential area close to Baltimore & Annapolis Trail and the presence of MTA bus stops on either side of the road, Route 2 is designed only for automobiles. And the death of a 14 year-old girl on a bike was merely a freak “accident.”

Ashley’s mother is right: we need more efforts to make our roads safer for everyone. Will the State Highway Administration hear her cry for basic levels of safety on Route 2?