Message from NASA GSFC Director Al Diaz Regarding Recent accidents at GSFC

Goddard Colleagues:

I’m sure that many of you are aware of two isolated, though somewhat
similar incidents, which took place this morning and yesterday afternoon.
I wanted to give you an official report on these two incidents to correct
some of the false information that is being circulated.

This morning, at approximately 8:00 a.m., a vehicle stopped at Gate 3
(Parkway Gate), made an inquiry, and then made an unauthorized entrance
onto the Center. The unauthorized vehicle caused an accident at the
Building 8 intersection, damaging an employee’s vehicle and injuring the
driver. Preliminary examinations of the injured driver revealed no serious
injuries.

Under pursuit of GSFC Security Officers, the vehicle continued at high
speed exiting through the Building 17/Visitor Center Gate, crossing Soil
Conservation Road and entering the East Campus. The vehicle continued
through the East Campus, damaging two security vehicles and a sign, before
crossing back over Soil Conservation Road driving through the closed gate.
After attempting to exit by Building 16, but unable to because of Jersey
barriers, the vehicle made a U-turn and exited the Center by driving
through the fencing across from Building 15/29 toward Soil Conservation
Road. U. S. Park Police took over the pursuit of the vehicle and
apprehended the suspect in Bowie, Md. The matter has been turned over to
the U.S. Park Police for investigation

On Wednesday, the driver of a vehicle wrecked his car into a guardrail on
the inbound ramp to GSFC from northbound Baltimore-Washington Parkway
while fleeing from the Maryland State Police. GSFC security personnel
secured the fencelines on both sides of the Parkway Gate. The driver of
the vehicle fled on foot, and did not enter GSFC property at any time
during the pursuit. He apparently followed the GSFC fenceline adjacent to
the BW Parkway and entered the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center
property where he was apprehended in the vicinity of the intersection of
Soil Conservation and Beaver Dam Roads. This matter has been turned over
to Maryland State Police.

The safety of our workers is my utmost concern, and I am thankful that
neither of these isolated incidents resulted in serious injury to any of
our employees. I have asked the GSFC Security Team to thoroughly examine
both of these incidents to determine if even more can be done to enhance
our perimeter security. I appreciate your continued support to make
Goddard a safe and secure place to work.

A.V. Diaz