Were you injured in a crash on Baltimore Avenue, near the University of Maryland campus, or on the Capital Beltway? A College Park car accident lawyer at Gelb & Gelb, P.C. can help you pursue compensation. First, we investigate how the collision happened. Then we identify every at-fault party and deal with the insurance companies. Throughout, we build a claim under Maryland law. As a result, you can focus on recovery while we handle the legal work.
Our firm serves College Park from our Maryland office at 14515 Main Street, Upper Marlboro, MD 20772, and we represent injured people across Prince George’s County. This page explains how car accident claims work in College Park. It also covers what Maryland law requires you to prove and how a College Park personal injury attorney approaches these cases. However, nothing here is legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Because every case turns on its own facts, please contact us for an evaluation.
College Park is home to the University of Maryland and tens of thousands of students, faculty, and residents. Because the campus draws constant car, bus, bicycle, and foot traffic, the area sees a high volume of collisions. Knowing where crashes cluster helps a lawyer find the evidence that matters.
The Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration and the Maryland Highway Safety Office compile statewide crash data. According to their figures, Prince George’s County ranks among the state’s busiest jurisdictions for reported crashes each year. Moreover, several College Park corridors carry an outsized share of that volume.
US 1, known locally as Baltimore Avenue, runs directly through College Park along the eastern edge of the University of Maryland campus. Because it mixes heavy through traffic with students crossing to shops, restaurants, and housing, it is one of the most collision-prone corridors in the area. The Capital Beltway, Interstate 495, passes just north of the city and produces high-speed, multi-vehicle crashes during congested periods.
Other routes add their own risks. For example, University Boulevard and Campus Drive carry dense traffic to and from the campus during class changes and events. Around the College Park Metro station and the Route 1 business district, frequent stops, turns, and pedestrian crossings further increase the chance of a collision. Game days and move-in weekends concentrate even more traffic into these corridors.
College Park has an unusually high number of pedestrians and cyclists because of the university. Students walk and bike along Baltimore Avenue and across campus at all hours. As a result, the Route 1 corridor carries a serious risk for people on foot and on bicycles. When a driver fails to yield, speeds, or drives distracted near campus, the people most likely to be hurt have no protection at all.
Most collisions trace back to a driver who failed to use reasonable care. For instance, distracted driving, speeding, and impaired driving rank among the most frequent causes. Following too closely is another. In addition, failure to yield to pedestrians and cyclists along Baltimore Avenue is a recurring and serious problem near campus. When a driver’s careless conduct injures you, a College Park car accident lawyer can evaluate the facts and explain whether you have a claim.
A large share of the people injured in College Park crashes are University of Maryland students, and student cases raise questions a typical Maryland claim does not. An out-of-state student is usually covered as a resident relative under a parent’s auto policy issued in another state, which means the uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, PIP or medical payments benefits, and policy limits are governed by that state’s rules and that policy’s language. A student driving a car registered to a parent in New Jersey or Pennsylvania, hit by a Maryland driver on Route 1, has a Maryland liability claim against the at-fault driver and an out-of-state first-party claim against the family insurer. We handle both and coordinate them so neither insurer uses the other as an excuse to delay.
Student health plans, the University Health Center, and parents’ employer health plans all pay medical bills in these cases and all assert reimbursement claims against the settlement. Resolving those claims is part of the work. So is dealing with the practical reality that a student plaintiff may graduate and move across the country before the case resolves. Maryland’s three-year filing deadline runs regardless, and we structure student cases so that depositions and medical examinations can be completed without derailing a semester.
College Park has one of the densest concentrations of shared scooters, bicycles, and pedestrians in Maryland, and Campus Drive, Baltimore Avenue, Knox Road, and Paint Branch Parkway produce a steady flow of crashes between cars and vulnerable road users. Maryland applies contributory negligence to riders and walkers, so a cyclist riding against traffic or a scooter rider crossing against a signal faces a complete defense. The counterweight is driver inattention, which is pervasive in the campus area and provable through phone records and event data recorder downloads. Our Maryland bicycle accident lawyer and Maryland pedestrian accident lawyer pages address those cases in detail.
Purple Line construction along Campus Drive and through the north end of the city has rerouted traffic and relocated crossings for years. Crashes in those work zones can involve the Maryland Transit Administration, the construction concessionaire, and the county in addition to the drivers, and each entity has its own notice rule. See our page on construction zone crashes in Maryland.
Jurisdiction in College Park is divided three ways. The University of Maryland Police Department handles crashes on campus property. The City of College Park contracts with the Prince George’s County Police for additional patrols, and the county’s District I station in Hyattsville writes most reports for crashes on city streets and Route 1. The Maryland State Police handle Interstate 95 and the Capital Beltway at the College Park interchange. Knowing which agency wrote the report lets us request it, along with body camera footage, without wasted weeks.
Prince George’s County recorded 91 traffic deaths in 2024, the most of any Maryland jurisdiction, according to a Capital News Service analysis of county police data. University Boulevard (MD 193) is a named high injury corridor in the neighboring county’s Vision Zero program and carries the same character on the College Park side: a six-lane divided road with long signal spacing and heavy pedestrian crossings near the campus. Baltimore Avenue through the city has been rebuilt with narrower lanes and new crossings, but the stretch north of the Beltway and the Kenilworth Avenue interchange remain high-speed.
Maryland applies pure contributory negligence. If the defense proves you contributed to the crash in any degree, you recover nothing. In College Park the defense most often targets pedestrians and riders, late-night crashes where the insurer suggests the injured person had been drinking, and intersection crashes on University Boulevard where both drivers claim the green. The boulevard rule requires anyone entering Route 1, University Boulevard, or Kenilworth Avenue from a side street, campus driveway, or parking lot to yield to all through traffic, and it resolves a large share of the intersection cases we handle here.
The general deadline to file suit is three years from the crash under Maryland’s statute of limitations. A crash involving a University of Maryland vehicle or a UMD Shuttle bus is a claim against the State of Maryland under the Maryland Tort Claims Act, which requires a claim to the State Treasurer within one year. City of College Park and Prince George’s County vehicles and roads require written notice within one year under the Local Government Tort Claims Act. Route 1, University Boulevard, and Kenilworth Avenue are state highways, so road defect claims on those routes also go to the State Treasurer. Our LGTCA notice guide covers the local government process.
Maryland’s minimum liability limits are $30,000 per person and $60,000 per crash, and many drivers in the campus area carry only that. Maryland policies must include uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage at least equal to the liability limits, and out-of-state family policies usually include similar coverage under their own state’s rules. Maryland PIP, included unless waived in writing, pays the first $2,500 or more of medical bills and lost wages regardless of fault. Our uninsured and underinsured motorist page explains how those claims work.
Economic damages are uncapped and include medical bills, lost wages, future care, and vehicle damage. For a student, lost earning capacity can be a significant element when an injury delays graduation or a career. Non-economic damages are capped by statute at $980,000 for causes of action arising on or after October 1, 2026, rising $15,000 each October. See what a Maryland car accident case is worth for a walkthrough.
College Park sits in Prince George’s County, which forms Maryland’s Seventh Judicial Circuit and the Fifth District of the District Court of Maryland. Smaller civil claims, generally those seeking $30,000 or less, are heard in the District Court of Maryland for Prince George’s County. That court maintains a nearby location in Hyattsville at 4990 Rhode Island Avenue along US 1.
Larger claims and any case requiring a jury proceed in the Circuit Court for Prince George’s County, located in the county seat of Upper Marlboro. According to the Maryland Judiciary, the Circuit Court is where most significant personal injury lawsuits in the county are filed and tried. Familiarity with how cases move through these courts is part of what a local lawyer brings to your claim.
Gelb & Gelb has represented injured people in Maryland and DC since 1954, and managing partner Roger Gelb handles or oversees every case personally. Our Maryland office in Upper Marlboro handles Prince George’s County filings, and our DC office at 1634 I Street NW is on the Red Line for clients and parents coming from the District. We work on a contingency fee with no fee unless we recover, and we are used to working with students and families in different states. For other injury matters in the city, visit our College Park personal injury lawyer page.
Yes. The crash happened in Maryland, so Maryland law governs the claim against the at-fault driver, and we are licensed here. We coordinate with your family’s out-of-state insurer for any first-party coverage.
Usually not as a defendant, but the rental agreement may affect insurance, and the scooter’s data can establish your speed and route. Your claim is against the driver, with your own or your family’s uninsured motorist coverage as a backstop.
The University is a state agency, so the claim proceeds under the Maryland Tort Claims Act with a one-year claim deadline and a statutory cap on damages.
Nothing up front. We advance case costs and take a percentage only if we recover.
Were you or a loved one injured in a crash in College Park or elsewhere in Prince George’s County? If so, the attorneys at Gelb & Gelb, P.C. are ready to help. We offer a free, no-obligation consultation and a candid assessment of your options. Reach us through our contact page or call our Maryland office in Upper Marlboro.
Our team also serves neighboring communities. For example, that includes clients who need a Hyattsville personal injury attorney or help anywhere in Prince George’s County. For broader background, see our Maryland car accident overview. Nothing on this page is a guarantee, warranty, or prediction about the outcome of any matter. Every case is different, and past results do not guarantee a similar outcome in future cases.
This page was written by Brian Gelb, an attorney at Gelb & Gelb, P.C. admitted in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and South Carolina. Gelb & Gelb, P.C. maintains its Maryland office at 14515 Main Street, Upper Marlboro, MD 20772.
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