Montgomery County police continue to investigate to determine why two cars collided, killing two men, on Friday night in Potomac.
Before 8 p.m. that day, a Ford Expedition driven by a 16-year-old from Derwood and a Mercedes CLA45 AMG driven by a 25-year-old from West Hollywood, California, crashed on Oaklyn Drive. Two 25-year-old men, Hersh Bhansaly and Brian Everett Laurence, in the backseat of the Mercedes died shortly after, and both drivers and three other passengers were hospitalized with injuries.
The investigation could take several weeks or longer, Sgt. Rebecca Innocenti, a police spokeswoman, said Wednesday. Once the investigation is concluded, police will work with the state’s attorney’s office to determine if charges will be filed.
Addison Leigh Poole, the 16-year-old driver of the Ford, and the two passengers she was driving—juvenile girls from Potomac and Bethesda—were treated at Suburban Hospital and released.
The three girls are juniors at Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart in Bethesda, according to an email from Head of School Catherine Ronan Karrels to the school community on Saturday. She wrote that the students were “doing fine.”
“We are profoundly grateful that our students survived this accident with minor injuries,” Karrels wrote. “We pray for the passengers in the other car, including Hersh Bhansaly, 25, and Brian Everett Laurence, 25, who were both fatally injured.”
Information about the condition of Daniel Alex Epstein, the driver of the Mercedes, and a Potomac man sitting in the front passenger seat was not available Wednesday morning, but both had been taken to the hospital Friday with injuries not considered life-threatening.
Bhansaly of Bethesda and Laurence of Potomac died Friday night after they were taken to a local hospital, according to police.
Investigators are working to determine who was at fault for the crash, as well as whether alcohol, speeding or any other factors were involved. The investigation will also reveal if everyone was wearing seatbelts.
Innocenti said Poole was in violation of her provisional license at the time of the crash. New drivers under 18 in Maryland can’t drive with a passenger under the age of 18, except for immediate family members, for the first 151 days without a qualified supervising driver.
Any license suspension or other action related to that violation will be decided when the investigation is complete, Innocenti said.
The 2012 Ford was driving west of Oaklyn Drive and the 2015 Mercedes was heading east when the two cars collided near Pleasant Gate Lane.