WASHINGTON — A man died in a head-on Loudoun County crash that closed a state route for part of Friday morning.
Just before 5 a.m. Friday, three vehicles tried to pass a tractor-trailer driving east on Va. 9 near Purceville Road in a no passing zone. One of the vehicles did not back in around the tractor trailer and back into the eastbound lanes — instead striking a Dodge Charger head-on in the westbound lanes.
The adult male eastbound driver died at the scene of the crash, said Virginia State Police spokeswoman Corrine Geller. Officials are not releasing his name until next of kin have been notified.
The adult male driver of the Dodge Charger was flown to Inova Fairfax Hospital for treatment of serious, but nonlife threatening, injuries, Geller said.
Virginia State Police are investigating the crash.
The crash closed Va. 9 between Hillsboro Road and Purcellville Road. Traffic reopened on Va. 9 a little after 9:30 a.m. after being closed in both directions for a little bit more than four hours.
“We inconvenienced thousands of drivers — just for a momentary lapse in judgment from one driver,” said Virginia State Police 1st Sgt. Alvin Blankenship, who responded to the Friday morning crash.
Blankenship advised drivers to stop and think before engaging in the types of risky driving that caused the crash.
“‘Do I really need to make this maneuver? Is it safe?’ And if the answer is in any way leaning toward ‘no’ then don’t do it,” Blankenship said.
There isn’t enough law enforcement on the road to prevent such tragedies, he said.
“We have to start re-educating ourselves, it has to start at home,” Blackenship said.
A map of where the incident happened can be seen below.
WTOP’s John Domen and Kristi King contributed to this report.
