Video shows car careening into Fairfax officer during traffic stop
Video shows a car speeding across Fairfax County Parkway and crashing into a pulled over vehicle on May 1. (Video: Fairfax County Police Department)
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Police released video Tuesday showing a speeding car careen across the Fairfax County Parkway and into another vehicle and a police officer who was conducting a traffic stop — an incident that authorities say could have proved fatal and highlights the dangers of reckless driving. Fast, informative and written just for locals. Get The 7 DMV newsletter in your inbox every weekday morning. ArrowRight “It’s just miraculous that we’re not talking under different circumstances,” Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis said. “By all accounts, this should have resulted in much worse outcomes than it did, so thank God for that.”
Deputy Chief Bob Blakley said that the incident began when a Sully District Station officer pulled over a gray 2012 BMW 750 traveling at 73 mph in a 55 mph zone on the southbound side of the Fairfax County Parkway southbound just before Braddock Road on Monday.
As the officer was speaking with the driver of that car, authorities said, a 17-year-old driving a black 2018 BMW M3 in the northbound lanes lost control of their vehicle and crossed the centerline.
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In the shocking footage captured by the police cruiser, the officer can be seen running away from the passenger side of the BMW he had pulled over, narrowly avoiding a severe hit. The careening car — which authorities say was traveling over 120 mph — collides head on with the vehicle that was pulled over, then runs into the officer.
“If he would have frozen … he likely would not have survived that impact,” Davis said. “He moved in the right place at the right time for that split second.”
Blakley said that everyone involved had “minor injuries.”
The officer and the driver of the vehicle he pulled over were taken to the hospital for treatment, Blakely said. The three teens in the BMW that crossed the centerline were not injured to the point of needing care at the hospital, Blakley said.
Fairfax County has seen a 62 percent increase in citations to teen drivers for speeding compared to the same time last year; a 98 percent increase in citations for violating signs or signals; and a 181 percent increase in citations for failure to pay full time and attention, Blakley said. He also said that police believe that teen drivers were involved in three deaths of an overall eight killed in crashes so far this year.
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“These are statistics we need to pay attention to,” Blakey said.
Blakley said it did not appear that drugs or alcohol were factors in the crash.
“This young driver probably was sitting at Popes Head [Road] and got a green light and gunned it,” Blakley said. “You saw just a complete loss of control.”
Fairfax County police did not release the name of the officer involved. Police said the 17-year-old driver of the careening vehicle, who they did not identify, was charged with reckless driving.
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Source: The Washington Post
