Elkridge Man Dies After Car Crashes Into House in Ellicott City

Police have identified the driver of a car that crashed into a house in Ellicott City Friday night, igniting the car and setting the house on fire.

Twenty-year-old Bryan Thomas Bolster of Landing Road in Elkridge was dead at the scene of the accident, according to authorities. Bolster is listed as a 2008 graduate of Howard High School.

Witnesses told police that the car, a BMW, was traveling at a high rate of speed on the 5100 block of Montgomery Road. 

The car careened into the front porch of the home at 5109 Montgomery Road at 10:40 p.m. The car caught on fire, according to police, and the fire spread into the home.

The two people inside the house made it out safely with their pets.

"I heard an explosion, then the lights went out," according to Mignon Geiglein, who lives behind the Montgomery Road home with John Geiglein.

Howard County Police said the BMW apparently lost control and ran off of the right side of the street as it was going westbound on Montgomery Road. Witnesses told police that the car was traveling at a high rate of speed. Police have not yet determined if road conditions played a part in the crash.

According to court records, Bolster twice pleaded guilty last year to speeding. Once in Ellicott City for driving 44 mph in a 30 mph zone and once in Westminster for driving 57 mph in a 30 mph zone.

When the Geigleins heard the crash, they went outside to investigate.

"The flames were all you could see," said John Geiglein. The fire was put out in about 20 minutes, witnesses said.

The Geigleins said they were immediately concerned about their neighbor, Kyle Marriott, who owns the house at 5109 Montgomery Road. His car, which was hit by the BMW, appeared totaled from the impact and his house was still smoking from the fire, but Marriott was uninjured, according to officials.

As soon as the car hit, he evacuated the house with his girlfriend and their three dogs—two rottweilers and a mutt. Marriott was just finishing a renovation project on the property, the Geigleins said.

What the neighbors gathered was this: The BMW had hit a power line, stone wall and finally the house. The Geigleins and their neighbors lost power.

The Geigleins said that accidents in the area weren't uncommon. "You hear these loud fender-benders," said Mignon Gieglein, noting there was what she called a blind spot at the area on Montgomery Road. But those accidents were nothing, she added—looking at the pair of crumpled vehicles—like the one Friday night.

Fire and police continued to investigate.