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By Mary Stachyra Lopez Darkness closely correlates with fatal crashes involving pedestrians and bicyclists along Leesburg Pike (Route 7), with walkers bearing the brunt of such incidents regardless of the time of day, according to a new study that analyzed nearly a decade’s worth of data. Using police-reported records from Virginia’s crash database from 2017 to 2026, the nonprofit Northern Virginia Families for Safe Streets (NoVA FSS) found that 10 out of 11 fatal crashes that occurred along the Route 7 corridor from the Fairfax/Loudoun county line to the west end of Alexandria happened at night. The data from Virginia’s Traffic Records Electronic Data System…

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By Angela Woolsey Since it began collecting near-miss data for local roads in 2021, Northern Virginia Families for Safe Streets has accumulated more evidence that such close calls between drivers and other travelers reflect patterns of behavior, rather than random or one-time slip-ups. More than 70% or 94 of the 129 near-misses reported by community members in Fairfax County and the cities of Fairfax and Falls Church between January 2025 and June of this year were marked as recurring incidents, according to an analysis released by the volunteer-led safety advocacy organization on Sept. 10. “The report finds that dangerous conditions for pedestrians and cyclists in Fairfax…

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By Dan Egitto A new analysis of over 100 “near miss” traffic incidents in Arlington zeroes in on disproportionate issues on a handful of busy roads and intersections. The report from Northern Virginia Families for Safe Streets analyzed 136 incidents in Arlington where people said they were almost hit by vehicles. The data shows that “failure to yield” remains the most common risk factor, mentioned in 64% of the incidents, followed by vehicles speeding (35%) and running red lights or stop signs (29%). “These are identifiable, recurring risks concentrated on a small number of corridors — not random bad luck,” the report says. “That makes…

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By Emily Leayman After collecting reports on hundreds of near-miss crashes over the last year and a half, Northern Virginia Families for Safe Streets is calling on Alexandria to deploy new authority over stop sign cameras and other measures to address driver behaviors. Northern Virginia Families for Safe Streets, which includes an Alexandria chapter, collected 241 near-miss reports in the city between January 2025 and June 2026. While crashes are recorded on the city’s dashboard, the organization takes resident reports of near-misses by text and online survey. In 76% of the reports, failure to yield was cited as the top driver behavior contributing to the near-misses.…

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Story by Mercia Hobson Tuesday, August 4, 2026 Fairfax County has matched its full-year totals for pedestrian and vulnerable road user deaths from both 2024 and 2025 in under seven months. As the death toll for non-drivers climbed to 14 as of July 29, safety advocates warned that simple, life-saving street fixes remain stalled behind red tape and state approval hurdles. Back-to-back fatal collisions in July along Richmond Highway (Route 1) in Hybla Valley have renewed calls for systemic roadway safety improvements across Northern Virginia. “My colleagues at Safe Streets are deeply disappointed and saddened by the alarming number of avoidable pedestrian fatalities in Fairfax County…

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by Lianna Golden FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va. (7News) — New concerns are being raised about safety along Richmond Highway in Fairfax County, where advocates say the busy corridor is becoming increasingly deadly and needs immediate action from local and state leaders. “We call these crashes. We don’t call them accidents because accidents infer it was unavoidable,” Mike Doyle, Executive Director of Northern Virginia Families for Safe Streets, said. “Now, every one of these could have been avoided.” RELATED | FCPS declines to release full external investigation report on high school groping case Doyle, who founded the pedestrian safety group, is referring to the number of crashes from…

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By Angela WoolseyPublished May 28, 2026 at 3:05PM More than 60 pedestrians and cyclists have been killed or seriously injured in crashes on Richmond Highway over the past decade — and conditions appear to be worsening instead of improving, a new analysis says. Skimpy lighting and crossings, along with alcohol intoxication, appear to be driving factors behind the frequent serious crashes that occur in the approximately 14-mile corridor from the Alexandria border down to the Occoquan River south of Lorton, according to Northern Virginia Families for Safe Streets (NoVA FSS). “The Richmond Highway corridor is a concentrated and consistent pedestrian safety crisis,” the volunteer-led advocacy group said. “These crashes…

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By Rossy Soto, Jasmin Dinh and Jeff Plungis In 2022, Justice High School junior Lesly Diaz-Bonilla was struck and killed as she was leaving the Barcroft View Apartments, on her way to school. Just four years earlier, in the same Fairfax County location, a mother and daughter were injured by a hit-and-run driver. Diaz-Bonilla’s death drew attention to a safety problem that continues to plague a 4-mile stretch of Columbia Pike between Bailey’s Crossroads and Annandale, where poor design and inattentive drivers often put pedestrians at risk. There are proven, low-cost countermeasures that could improve safety, but they haven’t been implemented, despite growing pressure from neighbors who live around…

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By Eliza Tebo March 3, 2026 Connecting a three-block stretch of a leafy Arlington neighborhood near a couple of parks lies an unassuming sidewalk. Other than the young trees alongside it and the caution-yellow curb ramps, there’s nothing remarkable about this patch of pavement—except for the fact it was eight years in the making. Pete Erickson’s vision for it began in 2012 when he moved to Tara-Leeway Heights with his wife, Sabrina, and their two young kids. Though they liked their new home, they were concerned about the lack of sidewalks along their street. In the years that followed, the county opened the new Cardinal…