Calay News
A police officer in Fairfax County had a narrow escape when a teenage driver lost control of his BMW, traveling at over 120mph on the Fairfax County Parkway. The car spun around, crossed the median, and collided with a vehicle that the officer had stopped for speeding.
The officer had the presence of mind to quickly move to the back of the stopped vehicle, avoiding being crushed by a few feet. The adult driver of the stopped car suffered minor injuries and has since been released from the hospital. The teenage driver and two passengers in the BMW suffered minor injuries, and the teen was charged with reckless driving. The Fairfax County Police are urging parents to have conversations with their teen drivers about the dangers of erratic and dangerous driving. The department has seen a 62% increase in tickets issued to teen drivers for speeding offenses in 2023 over the same period in 2022.
Fairfax County Deputy Police Chief Bob Blakley commended the officer’s decision to approach the stopped car on the passenger side, which saved his life. Blakley emphasized that the officer’s decision was consequential, noting that his back would have been to traffic and he probably wouldn’t have had advance notice of the out-of-control vehicle had he approached the car on the driver’s side. The video of the crash will likely be used in the police department’s criminal justice academy for many reasons, including the advantage of a passenger-side approach to a stopped vehicle in some cases, according to Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis. Davis urged parents to be careful about the cars they purchase for their teenagers to drive, saying that the BMW involved in the collision was a “whole lot of car” for an inexperienced driver. When the car approached the curve on the Fairfax County Parkway, “it was a rocket, and then it became a missile” when the teen lost control, Davis explained.
