Driver Loses Control of Vehicle and Hits Cyclist, both Die

Dr. Gridlock has the report.

A driver making a right turn in Fairfax Friday afternoon lost
control of the vehicle, leaving the road and striking two cyclists on a
bike path before the car plunged into a wooded area, according to
Fairfax County police.

One bike rider and the driver were killed, officials said.

The accident happened just after 4 p.m. at the intersection of Lee
Highway and Forum Drive, according to Fairfax spokesperson Officer
Shelly Broderick.

Police are now reporting that the second cyclist was not injured. They identified the car involved as an SUV.

Worst possible ending to Bike to Work Day.

UPDATE: Here is more coverage.

The Post – the cyclist was a 17 year old high school student.

The driver also died when the vehicle continued to careen and crashed
into a tree, officials said. Another cyclist on the trail was hit but
was not injured.

The other cyclist was a 14 year old girl. The Post article is weird. After describing the crash and mentioning that it happened on BTWD, it goes on to talk about how Latinos are in bike crashes with a quote from the same Fairfax detective who said that bike commuters can’t handle their bikes.

Traffic fatalities
have dropped sharply in Fairfax in recent years, and records indicate
that the cyclist’s death might be the county’s first in more than a
year. The majority of the half-dozen cyclist deaths in the past five years have involved Latino immigrants riding to or from work in the dark.

“You want to be careful about stereotyping, but you have to look at the
circumstances,” said Fairfax Detective Scott Neville, who investigates
traffic fatalities. “As much as you hate to say it, it’s often a
certain socioeconomic class.”

It then describes three crashes that fit this description (three out of six is not a majority, btw). In the second case, the driver was charged with reckless driving, but this wasn’t mentioned by Neville or Ashley Halsey III. Then she adds that none of them were wearing helmets. None of which is relevant since the 17 year old killed today was not riding badly, was probably not biking from work and was not Latino. And we don’t know if he was wearing a helmet, not that it was likely to matter.

9 News coverage.