Police say excessive speed played a role in the single-car crash in Fairfax Station, Virginia, earlier this month that killed two teen girls and left a third in the hospital.
Meanwhile, safety changes are also in the works for the dangerous stretch of road where the crash happened, officials said.
The 2019 Lexus IS350 the girls were driving and riding in was traveling 100.7 miles per hour before the Jan. 10 crash on a winding, hilly stretch of Lee Chapel Road. That’s according to an update this week from Fairfax County Police, who said detectives analyzed the air bag control module. The vehicle was airborne for 130 feet as it went off the road.
The crash killed 16-year-olds Ariana Haftsavar and Ashlyn Brotemarkle. A third teen remains hospitalized, according to police.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday asked county transportation staff to develop a cost estimate for a project between to widen Lee Chapel Road from two lanes to four, as well as to remove hills that reduce visibility for drivers, in a 1-mile stretch, between Ox Road and Fairfax County Parkway.
The Board unanimously approved my motion, presented jointly with Supervisor Storck and Chairman McKay, to direct FCDOT to look at eliminating the hills on Lee Chapel Road and potential sources of funding for the project. pic.twitter.com/x3eJbdfLKC
— Supervisor Pat Herrity (@PatHerrity) January 24, 2023
Springfield District Supervisor Pat Herrity, who presented the motion with Chairman Jeff McKay and Mount Vernon Supervisor Dan Storck, said the bill “also asks our public works department to look at the feasibility of streetlights and the Park Authority to look at clearing the shoulder areas on the adjacent parkland.”
The stretch of road includes hills and rises immediately before the road veers, minimizing reaction time for drivers, even when driving at the 30 mile per hour speed limit.
According to FFXNow, preliminary state data presented to the board showed there have been 245 crashes and 149 injuries on Lee Chapel Road since 2010.
Springfield District Supervisor Pat Herrity originally proposed the project in 2017, after a 19-year-old died in a crash at the intersection of Lee Chapel and Fairfax County Parkway two years before.
