Close call at high speed: video shows officer remarkably evade crash in Virginia
MATTHEW BARAKAT
Associated Press
FAIRFAX, Va. — A police officer remarkably escaped injury Monday when a car careened across a highway at 120 mph while he conducted a traffic stop.
Dashcam video of the crash released Tuesday by Fairfax County Police shows a black BMW sedan driven by a teenager coming within inches of the officer, who had stepped out of his patrol car to pull over a gray BMW for speeding.
In the seconds before the crash, the black BMW can be seen skidding across a median on the Fairfax County Parkway near Braddock Road. It then strikes the car that had been pulled over and ricochets into the patrol car. The officer falls to the ground for a second, then quickly pops up to radio for help and check on injuries.
Miraculously, no major injuries were reported, even though the black BMW had two teenage passengers in addition to the driver. All three in the black BMW were wearing seatbelts, police said.
The driver of the black BMW was charged with reckless driving, a misdemeanor that can often result in jail time in Virginia. Police said the driver was 17 years old, and state law restricts them from identifying him or releasing any details about the crash that could be used to identify him.
Deputy Police Chief Bob Blakley said traffic safety among teen drivers is on the decline. So far this year, Fairfax police have seen a 62 percent increase in teen speeding citations, and a 98 percent increase in tickets for failure to follow signs or signals.
In Monday’s crash, reconstruction experts determined that the car had been going 120 mph in a 50 mph zone before it lost control.
“The vehicle lost control because cars can’t go that fast on the highway,” he said.
Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis did not identify the officer, who was uninjured but recovering at home Tuesday. Davis and Blakley said the 13-year veteran may be alive today because he approached the driver he pulled over on the passenger side of the vehicle — a tactic that is optional for officers but advised in cases where approaching on the driver side presents a safety hazard, Blakley said.
Davis complimented the officer’s professionalism at a news conference Tuesday.
“His grace under pressure was calm, cool, collected,” Davis said.
Davis said the accident is a good reminder about the importance of traffic safety and recognizing the dangers that officers face enforcing traffic laws. Also, in Fairfax County, one of the wealthiest counties in the nation, Davis suggested that parents might want to reconsider providing high-performance automobiles to their children.
“The car involved in that collision yesterday was a whole lot of car for an inexperienced driver,” Davis said. “It was going way too fast. It was a rocket, and then it became a missile.”
Close call at high speed: video shows officer remarkably evade crash in Virginia
lzf // Shutterstock
The coveted teenage dream of obtaining a driver's license at 16 has been headed toward the scrap yard for almost 40 years. Federal Highway Administration data from 2020, the most recent available, shows that drivers 19 and younger make up 3.7% of all U.S. drivers—and drivers 16 and younger are just 0.5% of the nation's drivers.
Those ratios are shrinking: An analysis by mobility advocacy group Green Car Congress found that in 2018, 61% of 18-year-olds had a driver's license, down from 80% in 1983. Over the same period, the proportion of 16-year-olds with licenses also dropped from 46% to 25%.
Using data from the FHWA, The General has compiled the 10 U.S. states with the largest shares of young drivers—those 19 and younger.
Because people in more rural states may be more likely to need—and therefore get—a driver's license, the states are also listed with their urbanization indexes, sourced from a 2020 analysis by FiveThirtyEight. And indeed, more rural states tend to have a higher percentage of drivers who are young.
lzf // Shutterstock
The coveted teenage dream of obtaining a driver's license at 16 has been headed toward the scrap yard for almost 40 years. Federal Highway Administration data from 2020, the most recent available, shows that drivers 19 and younger make up 3.7% of all U.S. drivers—and drivers 16 and younger are just 0.5% of the nation's drivers.
Those ratios are shrinking: An analysis by mobility advocacy group Green Car Congress found that in 2018, 61% of 18-year-olds had a driver's license, down from 80% in 1983. Over the same period, the proportion of 16-year-olds with licenses also dropped from 46% to 25%.
Using data from the FHWA, The General has compiled the 10 U.S. states with the largest shares of young drivers—those 19 and younger.
Because people in more rural states may be more likely to need—and therefore get—a driver's license, the states are also listed with their urbanization indexes, sourced from a 2020 analysis by FiveThirtyEight. And indeed, more rural states tend to have a higher percentage of drivers who are young.
Close call at high speed: video shows officer remarkably evade crash in Virginia
The General
Rural Midwestern states were among the most likely to have higher percentages of young drivers. In part that's likely because they are made up of less dense, more expansive areas and lack significant public transit services.
As a nation, the U.S. is not the most transit-accessible: The 10 largest metropolitan areas in the country make up just one-quarter of the nation's census tracts, but 95% of census tracts with regular public transit service, according to a UCLA analysis of Census Bureau data. Most of those transit hot spots are on either the East Coast or the West Coast—with nearly one-third of them in the New York City metropolitan area.
In addition, the pandemic may have somewhat slowed the rate of young drivers getting licenses: Nationally, 3.9% of the nation's drivers were 19 and under in 2019. In 2020 that share dropped to 3.7%.
The General
Rural Midwestern states were among the most likely to have higher percentages of young drivers. In part that's likely because they are made up of less dense, more expansive areas and lack significant public transit services.
As a nation, the U.S. is not the most transit-accessible: The 10 largest metropolitan areas in the country make up just one-quarter of the nation's census tracts, but 95% of census tracts with regular public transit service, according to a UCLA analysis of Census Bureau data. Most of those transit hot spots are on either the East Coast or the West Coast—with nearly one-third of them in the New York City metropolitan area.
In addition, the pandemic may have somewhat slowed the rate of young drivers getting licenses: Nationally, 3.9% of the nation's drivers were 19 and under in 2019. In 2020 that share dropped to 3.7%.
lzf // Shutterstock