The Ocean City boardwalk tram, which stopped running indefinitely after a collision killed a 2-year-old boy last year, will not be returning to service.
“The Town acknowledges the long-standing tradition and the fond memories many residents and visitors have … the trams will not return in their previous form,” Ocean City Manager Terry McGean said in a statement to multiple news outlets. “That said, the Town is actively exploring ways to reimagine the Boardwalk without the trams.”
The tram service first began operations along the boardwalk in the Atlantic Ocean resort town in Maryland in 1964.
On the night of Aug. 20, 2024, the tram, consisting of a Jeep and the passenger trailers it towed, hit a 2-year-old boy in the concrete tram lane as the child ran from the beach to the wooden part of the boardwalk, according to the local Ocean City Today-Dispatch newspaper.
Investigators later determined that the condition of the Jeep and trailers played a role, writing “the combination of vehicles and braking systems involved in the collision played a consequential role in the death of” the victim, according to documents cited by Ocean City Today-Dispatch.
In particular, the investigators said that if the rear tram trailer had the proper brakes required by state law, the Jeep and trailers would have had time to stop before hitting the boy.
Mr. McGean said that the matter was resolved and that the family never filed litigation, according to Ocean City Today-Dispatch, but he did not specify whether authorities reached a settlement with the victim’s family.
The city, officials said, had no other real options.
“The tram was not mass transit. It was an attraction — an attraction that we all loved,” Mr. McGean told WRDE-LD.
Some tram drivers have now been redirected towards work on public transit, the Ocean City bus.
“We’re trying to find places for them,” Ocean City Transportation Manager Rob Shearman Jr. told the Baltimore Banner in April.
