fatal hit & run in Alexandria this morning - Braddock Rd & Commonwealth at 9am

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is no bike lane on that part of the street. It doesn't matter IMO.

gotcha, thanks. I don't ride on Braddock very often, and do not remember where the bike lane begins and ends.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you must jog in the street, always, always jog against the traffic. Never jog with the flow of traffic---much more dangerous!
This is standard cross country team practice.

Do you think that's a universal experience? That's just standard safety rules.

I meant it was ingrained into my head by my cross country coach. NEVER run with the traffic, always against.
It's something that I think all cross country coaches teach because they have packs of young runners who are potentially out in traffic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Her death is a horrific accident. But why in the world was she running with the traffic, in the street, during rush hour?
This could have been prevented with some common sense.

Was it here?

https://www.google.com/maps/@38.8164629,-77.0630202,3a,75y,90h,90t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s6bngS1juLrlkUgSUDFVvYw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!6m1!1e1

Where the sidewalk suddenly ends for a triangular intersection, and there is no marked crosswalk?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Her death is a horrific accident. But why in the world was she running with the traffic, in the street, during rush hour?
This could have been prevented with some common sense.

Was it here?

https://www.google.com/maps/@38.8164629,-77.0630202,3a,75y,90h,90t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s6bngS1juLrlkUgSUDFVvYw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!6m1!1e1

Where the sidewalk suddenly ends for a triangular intersection, and there is no marked crosswalk?

No. There actually is a sidewalk for the west side of Commonwealth but it is covered from the boxwood hedges in the photo, which is a picture of the light/intersection of commonwealth and Btaddock.

You see where the DASH bus. The bus is on Braddock. The accident occurred on Commonwealth, between Braddock and Spring Street. Initially there are no parking spaces, but if you go like 50 feet there are like two parking spaces on Commonwealth before Spring, when cars aren't parked there people use it as a bike lane.

From this picture you cannot see it. There is in fact a sidewalk there, it is narrow and there is a large amount of overgrown bamboo from someone's yard that goes onto the sidewalk,but you can still walk. The accident happened to the right of the bus. So imagine if that bus took a right at that light. Then just after it turned, right in the middle of Commonwealth between Braddock and Spring (which is a short block) is where she was hit. I live on Glendale, which is right there. We don't know if she was in the crosswalk, sidewalk, street or what. But I don't think she was in the middle of the street. No one is telling the neighborhood anything, but instead of over analyzing the street and the jogger, what about a truck driving in a 25 mph residential zone, that either turned onto Commonwealth or was already driving down Commonwewlth southbound, and literally ran off what is designated her lane and ran over a person, crushed them, sliced them in 2, dragged the body, drove 4 more blocks to do a delivery, and went off about her way. What about how can someone, I don't care what they are driving, not feel the bump?! God bless us all and the world we live in if the fault is all about a bike lane and about how insane and fast people drive.

[Anonymous]

There is no sidewalk on the opposite side of the street right before that intersection. So, if you want to jog on the sidewalk, you have to jog in the direction of the traffic flow on Commonwealth near the juncture where the victim was killed. I jog along that route whenever I run.

[Anonymous]

Joggers should not use bike lanes. I was driving home a few days ago and there was a woman jogging in the bike lane on Commonwealth Ave. I believe its a dangerous practice. There are parked cars, sometimes occupied with people who throw their car doors open without looking to see who is around, people driving and not paying attention...it is a busy area and you have to pay attention at all times. Its tragic that this woman's life ended in such a manner. Too many cars/trucks on the road and too many careless people not paying attention.

[Anonymous]

I never thought of that area as particularly crazy for running. There's an elementary school on Commonwealth and lots of bikers and pedestrians everywhere, so I feel like drivers should be paying attention. And 9:20 isn't rush hour. At that time of day it wouldn't feel busy.

[Anonymous]

Who was the driver of the truck?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Joggers should not use bike lanes. I was driving home a few days ago and there was a woman jogging in the bike lane on Commonwealth Ave. I believe its a dangerous practice. There are parked cars, sometimes occupied with people who throw their car doors open without looking to see who is around, people driving and not paying attention...it is a busy area and you have to pay attention at all times. Its tragic that this woman's life ended in such a manner. Too many cars/trucks on the road and too many careless people not paying attention.

Seriously? We established that she wasn't in a bike lane.

[Anonymous]

For those looking to "learn from the incident"/blame the victim: Commonwealth is not an insanely busy road. Hundreds of pedestrians must walk or run exactly where she was every day. They are forced into the road, as many have explained, by a weird lack of sidewalk on that small strip. There is sidewalk on the other side but overgrown shrubs (been that way for a decade) and telephone polls make the sidewalk untravelable. This two block portion of commonwealth is in the middle of an otherwise very pedestrian friendly road.

[Anonymous]

Has anyone actually confirmed that she was jogging? There are other reasons she could have been in the street (stumbled, picking something up, crossing the street, etc).

I'm another who hates when people jog in the street but it seems silly to have that argument here when we're not even sure what happened.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone actually confirmed that she was jogging? There are other reasons she could have been in the street (stumbled, picking something up, crossing the street, etc).

I'm another who hates when people jog in the street but it seems silly to have that argument here when we're not even sure what happened.

She could have been walking but I have a hard time imagining her on that part of the road picking something up and she couldn't have gotten there by stumbling. But why does that matter when we've establish its a dangerous stretch of road that has heavy pedestrian traffic due to its location.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone actually confirmed that she was jogging? There are other reasons she could have been in the street (stumbled, picking something up, crossing the street, etc).

I'm another who hates when people jog in the street but it seems silly to have that argument here when we're not even sure what happened.

She could have been walking but I have a hard time imagining her on that part of the road picking something up and she couldn't have gotten there by stumbling. But why does that matter when we've establish its a dangerous stretch of road that has heavy pedestrian traffic due to its location.

It matters (or rather, people think it matters) because if they can tell themselves that the jogger was doing something dangerous, then they can think:

1. That jogger was doing something dangerous when she was killed.
2. I wouldn't do that.
3. Therefore it won't happen to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For those looking to "learn from the incident"/blame the victim: Commonwealth is not an insanely busy road. Hundreds of pedestrians must walk or run exactly where she was every day. They are forced into the road, as many have explained, by a weird lack of sidewalk on that small strip. There is sidewalk on the other side but overgrown shrubs (been that way for a decade) and telephone polls make the sidewalk untravelable. This two block portion of commonwealth is in the middle of an otherwise very pedestrian friendly road.

No one is looking to "blame the victim". What good would that do? I'm not familiar with that particular area myself and from the way it was being described it doesn't sound like a place that a person would necessarily choose to jog in but perhaps had to cross for some reason (maybe on the way to a trail and no other alternative route).

You yourself have identified areas in which the area could be made safer for foot traffic. Not seeing how there is a down side in sorting those things out.

[Anonymous]

I live very close to the accident and was walking my dog by it yesterday and overheard some police officers and some T&E people who were there discussing the scene. They pointed out tire tracks and you can still see them if you were to go there today. From what they said, the truck swerved way over to the right, so I don't know if the truck was turning from Braddock onto Commonwealth or was just coming south from Commonwealth, but you can see the double tire marks that would be the passenger side tires go all the almost to the curb of the sidewalk but it doesn't go on the sidewalk. The marks swerve way over to the right, then try to correct and try to go straight, but you can see the marks for a good block and hence see where the truck drove. If a car had been parked (but it is a bus stop so it couldn't be) it would have smashed a car. That is frightening considering how close the driver came to actually going up on the sidewalk. It is way off of the regular path or truck. It leads me to believe the driver took an exceptionally wide turn (turning left from Braddock onto Commonwealth) or was distracted and realized she was about to hit some cars parked up closer to Spring. Either way, the truck should not have been that far to the right.