Pedestrian killed on Route 7
Updated 3:30 p.m., Oct. 27: A woman is dead after being struck by a hit-and-run driver in the 5600 block of Leesburg Pike at Carlin Springs Road in Bailey’s Crossroads at 10 p.m. on Oct. 26.
The Fairfax County Police Department identified the victim as Elise Ballard, age 40.
The driver of a 2017 Infiniti QX60 was traveling westbound on Leesburg Pike and struck Ballard in the roadway outside a crosswalk.
Related story: Pedestrian killed in hit-and-run crash in Annandale
The driver of the Infiniti then drove to a nearby parking lot and called for help. Prior to police arrival, Ballard was subsequently struck by another vehicle. Rescue personnel pronounced her deceased at the scene.
According to the police department, speed and alcohol do not appear to be factors in the crash. The investigation remains active, and details of the investigation will be presented to the Office of the Commonwealth’s Attorney for review.
Anyone with information about this crash is asked to contact the Police Department’s Crash Reconstruction Unit at 703-280-0543 or submit an anonymous tip to Crime Solvers.
This is the 17th pedestrian-related fatal crash in Fairfax County to date in 2022. Year to date, in 2021 there were 11 pedestrian-related fatal crashes.
16 responses to “Pedestrian killed on Route 7”
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Was he crossing w the light at the crosswalk or not. Did the driver go thru the red light.
More police need to patrol our roadways instead of sitting around having coffee at the Barcroft Plaza Starbucks.
@Vaxed2themax A driver struck a man and then chose to flee the scene, leaving him to die. It doesn’t matter where the pedestrian was walking.
Of course this is just an example of the ‘acceptable fatalities’ VDOT designs into our roads in the name of average vehicles per hour.
Thetan, I was just asking the???s. You are absolutely correct in stating that all of that doesn’t matter, a life was lost.
I am a biker and the crazy drivers scare the crap out of me, especially w the right on red. They don’t even look to see that there may be someone at the crosswalk.
VDOT needs to employ cameras for red light and speed offenders. I hate these things but these devices do the trick. in the interim the police need to ticket these offenders aggressively.
This is a tragedy and it is painful to realize that deaths like this occur where we live.
Because of my recent experiences driving on Leesburg Pike at night (7:00pm and later because night is coming sooner this time of year) I am going to avoid this area at night as much as possible to avoid such tragedies.
Within the last two weeks I have involuntarily come close to hitting a pedestrian on Leesburg Pile.
I was driving west on Leesburg Pike immediately west of Carlin Springs Road when it was nighttime and dark outside. More specifically, I was driving on the Leesburg Pike overpass over Columbia Pike, which has NO sidewalks.
There was a man wearing all black who was not visible until I came close to him who was walking in this portion of Leesburg Pike. He was not walking at the edge of Leesburg Pike in an effort to stay away from the cars driving in the road. Instead, he was walking closer to the middle of the right lane which is used by cars to exit off Leesburg Pike and drive west on Columbia Pike.
I was driving under the speed limit and thankfully saw this pedestrian in time to change lanes and pass him without incident.
However, it was a very dangerous situation and I want to avoid encountering a similar situation in the future.
I don’t expect any significant changes in the Leesburg Pike overpass over Columbia Pike within the next year, and likely much longer.
Nor do I expect any action will be taken by Fairfax County or any other entity to prevent or advise people not to walk on the Leesburg Pike overpass over Columbia Pike.
So, I am going to try to avoid this Leesburg Pike overpass at night by turning off Leesburg Pike and driving through neighborhood roads instead to get where I am going.
We need to immediately implement a holistic plan to change our landscape into one that favors alternative transportation. No more excuses. No more finger-pointing. No more kicking the can. No more red tape. The cost of increasing traffic fatalities is far greater than the cost of retrofitting. We can build a better transportation future for ourselves.
Build rapid transit in Fairfax County. Build transit oriented development in Fairfax County.
If only we could use the road expansion money to do this… but that is not how this state functions. They are widening all the routes into Fairfax County to allow more through traffice from outer counties creating more urban sprawl.
Won’t change anything. The root cause of this problem is that a good chunk of people have no respect for others. You can build all the pretty new bike lanes and crosswalks, green spaces, and bus lanes you want. Those rude people will still speed and jaywalk. It’s a trash area and has been for 40 years. There was a murder in skyline towers last night. Short of a return to traditional moral values, we could have asked our police to increase enforcement. Up until two years ago they would have helped. But you all ruined that, didn’t you? Reap what you sow.
Catboy – you are dreaming. VDOT, FFOT, and the state and local leadership are clueless and frankly I don’t think they care.
I share the same experience as Susie and Vaxed. Force to stop driving at night and when I do on Little River Turnpike and Route 7 — drive below the speed limit. Try to look for pedestrians, watch the car in the right lane that will move over without notice, and parking lots are the worse. Sadly pedestrians need to do their part which they don’t practice well. We truly need our police back on patrol and stopping folks from unsafe walking and driving practices and we need a regional TV campaign in multiple languages reminding folks of common rules for driving and walking. The recent “show” by the Board of Supervisors is not the only answer. Lets get traffic supervision back for all our sake.
We ruined “the police”
Didn’t know how good we had it until they were gone
The police are still here.
So when I started reading this story I got confused by the headline. Then after reading a bit into the story I understood more. The pedestrian was hit by two different cars. The first car was not a “hit and run” as the driver moved to a safe spot and called for help. The second car appears to have the driver that committed the crime of “hit and run.”
Sad for loss of life, but if NOT crossing at a crosswalk on that road, you are taking a major unnecessary and dangerous risk.
There are rules to the road and we all have a part.
If you ride a bike, either be a pedestrian and get off the road or follow all rules for a car. I can not stand the bikers that switch between the two behaviors and rules (far to many). Everyone needs to slow down. These are not interstate highways. That alone saves lives. My wife says I drive like an old man – so be it! I drive more, further and with more folks; and being slow to accelerate and easy controlled stops mean I save on gas, wear and tear on the car, and do my part to pay attention when others are not.
Instead of looking for someone/thing to blame. Be alert, be aware, be responsible for yourself. If we all did that – it would greatly help.
We should be separating bike lanes from motor-vehicle traffic. Painted bike lanes are a joke, and extremely dangerous in a densely populated place such as this one. You are bound to get hit by someone turning right on red if you are cycling in a bike lane.
Reduce the number of travel lanes for cars on roads. Replace the space with separated bike lanes and sidewalks. This makes transportation safer for all modes.
Dedicated bike lanes don’t help pedestrians. I was hit by a biker when I had the crossing light. Will never forget that, biker was pissed at me when it was his fault. Cop gave him the ticket. Taking away lanes from cars doesn’t help the majority of the community that has things to do that a bunch of use can’t do on a bike. All for making separate bike paths parallel to roads, plus a sidewalk.
I been wondering about how to respond. It’s such a tragedy but also upsetting as ****.
If you been living in the area for a long time, 7-corners/Bailey’s, you no doubt notice how dangerous it is for pedestrians and have witnessed plenty of close calls. Numerous intersections and street crossing have NOT been updated to be safer for decades. No traffic calming measures, reduced speed limits, and not enough enforcement of speeders and aggressive drivers.
The upsetting part is that the unsafe conditions have existed for so long, apparent to everyone I would think and with remedies available and nothing has been done. This is just the latest death and was bound to happen unfortunately, and there will another incident sooner than later since no remedies are imminent. All VDOT and the county has are excuses.
Traffic calming efforts in Mason are: let’s make believe this problem doesn’t exist!