2 killed in MD as crowd gathers to watch drag race

Two people were killed when a car crashed into a vehicle on the side of a highway where witnesses said a crowd had gathered to watch a drag race, state police said Sunday.

Investigators were looking into whether the driver was drag racing before the crash about 3 a.m. Sunday on westbound Interstate 70 near the Baltimore city line. Investigators believe alcohol may have contributed to the crash but charges have not been filed, state police spokesman Arthur Betts said.

Mary-Kathryn Michele Abernathy, 21, of Columbia, and Jonathan Robert Henderson, 20, of La Plata, were standing next to Henderson’s car and were killed in the chain-reaction crash.

The deaths follow a gruesome accident in February 2008 in which eight people were killed when a car crashed into a crowd that had gathered along Route 210 in Accokee, about 20 miles south of Washington. Two men were charged in that case, which prompted increased patrols near popular racing sites.

Betts said it’s difficult to eliminate street racing.

“They’re still out there. We know they are,” Betts told The Washington Post, adding two state police patrols had been through the area an hour before the crash.

Paul Toman, Henderson’s stepfather, said Henderson and Abernathy had been dating for six months and “spent all of their time together.”

“They were inseparable,” Toman told the Post.

“It’s just so tragic, we’re just trying to figure out all that’s happened.”