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

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I live in the area, and travel on Commonwealth and Braddock very often, sometimes multiple times a day. From what I understand the truck was traveling eastbound on Braddock and making a right hand turn on the southbound lanes of Commonwealth and basically clipped the woman, who was jogging I think. Why she was in the road I don't know. Others have pointed out that there is a bunch of overgrown bamboo there right by the bus stop, so maybe she always runs in the street or at this point was in the street to run around the bamboo. Whatever, it really doesn't matter.

Over the last few days I have found myself going southbound on Commonwealth and getting stuck at that intersection at the red light and being the first car waiting for the light to change so I can continue through the intersection going south. As I wait for the light to change, I watch the cars coming down Braddock and turning right (as they have the green light) and car after car after car is flying through the 25 mph zone and taking that right turn insanely close to the curb, when there is an ample amount of room  to take an appropriately wider (but not too wide turn). I see people with zone 7 parking stickers (for Rosemont) so they must live in the neighborhood. I cannot believe how fast they are going, and how close they get to the sidewalk when they turn to the right. one after the other after the other. It is no surprise that if someone is just driving along like that that it was inevitable someone would get hit. I am surprised more cars don't just completely jump the curb.  I wouldn't be entirely surprised if this particular driver took the turn just as narrow, going just as fast as all the others and didn't have time to stop or may not have exactly seen someone who would have been on her passenger side before there was a collision. But I have a very hard time believing the driver didn't know she had hit something 1) based on the insanely gruesome aftermath, part of which I saw, that was so stained on the road they had to pave over it the next day, 2) the tire tracks are still there and show some erratic driving right after the point of impact and 3) it has been reported in the neighborhood from several sources the truck driver made a comment to the construction crew where she dropped her load 4 blocks from the accident that "she thought she might have hit something back there" yet she didn't drive back by to check. Instead she just drove back to Maryland.  If I thought I had hit something with my huge construction truck, I would have stopped or at least gone the 4 blocks back to where I thought it had happened. But this person just left, left the state in fact.

One last point, Virginia is a contributory negligent state. If the victim was indeed jugging in the road, it may be the driver just gets charged with leaving the scene of an accident, and not vehicular manslaughter. I think unless it can be proven the driver was grossly negligent (excessive speeding, texting or talking on a cell, etc.), the hitting part may not charged.  It's the running part that is the problem. The sad accident mentioned above where the woman was hit by the trash truck in front of her kids' school, I think that driver stayed at the scene of the crim. and I don't think the driver was charged, partially because the mother was unfortunately partially in the line of traffic on the driver side of the car buckling in the child in the back seat. [/quote]

Well, the Washington Post reported that she was walking, not jogging.  As the strike took place at intersection it was likely the victim was crossing the street in the crosswalk, most likely with the light.  The jogging is a red herring. I'd be wary of "neighborhood sources."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/woman-identified-in-fatal-hit-and-run-in-alexandrias-del-ray-neighborhood/2015/09/04/05159bba-5323-11e5-933e-7d06c647a395_story.html

[/quote]

I know what the WP wrote, but I live on that street and I can tell you she was not in the cross walk unfortunately. She was halfway between Braddock and Spring on Commonwealth. You can clearly see where the road was repaved, because the road was so stained and as some people in the neighborhood have said "the road looked like a tomato soup truck had overturned" that the city decided to repave it as it would not wash off.  If she was hit in the crosswalk, her body would have had to be thrown, airborne, like 100 feet, and then hit again a second time by the truck which ran over her and dragged her body.  If you don't live around here, I actually encourage you to drive by the area.  I am sorry that our neighborhood sources don't see legit to you. But I saw the accident about 10 minutes after it happened. You don't ever want to see something like that.[/quote]

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