Northern Virginia Motor Vehicle Accidents Law Blog

Terming the death of a motorist in an auto accident at a drunk driving checkpoint on U.S. 4460 "suspicious," police are continuing their investigation into the causes of the crash. The 25-year-old male motorist rammed his Honda CRV into the back of a truck that had slowed down at the checkpoint, which was set up close to the Bedford County and Campbell County line.

A spokesman for the Virginia State Police stated that the man's vehicle was going approximately 50 miles per hour at the time of the accident. The truck he was in was a Ford F150, being driven by a 44-year-old male motorist. He evidently collided with a guardrail near the checkpoint before plowing into the truck.

Approximately 60 hikers participating in a parade in Damascus, Virginia were injured in a pedestrian accident when an elderly motorist's vehicle plowed into them. The accident occurred at approximately 2:10 p.m. during an annual event that celebrates the Appalachian Trail.

While no one died, at least three people were injured severely enough that emergency responders felt the need for helicopters to fly them quickly to local medical facilities for treatment. 12 to 15 other injured pedestrians were rushed to hospitals via ambulance soon after the incident. All other injured victims received first aid at the scene of the crash.

A 19-year-old female senior at Mathews High School died recently in a vehicle rollover accident. She was traveling east in Mathews, Virginia, in her 1996 Ford Explorer. On Route 14, as it was coming up on Route 683, her car veered off the road, and when the 19-year-old driver attempted to get back on the road, she over-corrected, and the car rolled over a number of times.

State police investigators stated that she was not wearing a seat belt at the time of the accident. As a result, she was flung from the car and suffered critical injuries. While emergency personnel rushed to the scene, they were not able to revive her. She was pronounced dead at the crash site.

Car accidents are not necessarily confined to the roads and they do not have to involve high speeds to cause serious injury or even wrongful death. Individuals in Virginia, and throughout the rest of the country, have sustained serious or fatal injuries as a result of being backed over by a vehicle whose driver did not see them or was not paying attention.

A Glen Allen woman lost her daughter, age 2, to this type of car accident in 2005. A contractor's truck backed over the girl in the family's own driveway. The devastated woman vowed to press lawmakers to make a change that would ensure this does not happen to other families in the future.