This intersection is a hot spot for crashes
There’s no question that the intersection of John Marr Drive and Backlick Road in Annandale is a dangerous one.
Vincent Moten, who has been keeping track, has seen six crashes at that intersection since the start of 2023.
There was a horrific crash on April 8, he says. A silver RAV4 went through a red light on Backlick Road and was struck by a black Kia SUV. The RAV4 flipped over at least twice, landing on its wheels. The driver was apparently still conscious when paramedics got him out of the vehicle.
There were four incidents in March, Moten says.
A major crash, at 10:30 p.m. on March 12, involved three cars at John Marr Drive and Backlick Road. A fire truck, two ambulances, and four police cars responded.
On March 17, fire trucks blocked traffic at the intersection at 7:50 p.m. First responders “appeared to be treating someone or something on the ground,” Moten says.
There were two crashes on March 31. At about 3:40 p.m., a black Toyota Corolla appeared to hit the passenger side of a blue Toyota Sienna van. Moten couldn’t tell if the Sienna ran a red light. There was minor damage. Both drivers went into the Truist parking lot.
At about 4:30 p.m. on March 31, a white Chevy work van rear-ended a Blue VW Jetta or Passat in front of 4453 Backlick Road. There was minor damage.
On Jan. 4, there was a crash at about 11:30 p.m. involving a Metro Access bus and another vehicle. The horn was beeping every 20 seconds for over an hour before the police were able to shut it off.
“Something needs to be done to survey what’s causing so many accidents in this intersection,” Moten says. “It’s getting pretty bad.”
Efforts to keep track of incidents along this section of Backlick from LRTP to Braddock should be commended (maybe someday it’ll lead to something more than paint). The John Marr intersection is awful and Annandale Today previously noted the challenges Crestwood Manor neighbors have with their cross streets (Jayhawk being particularly awful). Even with reduced posted speed limits from a few years back, the older design of this roadway just encourages astonishingly unsafe vehicle speeds that no longer fit the uses and needs of neighbors surrounding it. And yes, this could be said of basically all the streets in Annandale (which is a sad state to admit).
I have personally sent an email to VDOT about this intersection and even tried to go the route of installing a HAWK pedestrian crosswalk or more pedestrian lights to help drivers slow down but they didn’t deem it as necessary. My elderly father has gotten into an accident here as well. How many more will it take for officials to listen?
One way to track what is going on here is to use the Near Miss and Dangerous Locations Reporting and Dashboard application was developed by North Virginia Families for Safe Streets (NoVA FSS) and launched in June 2021. The dashboard is a visualization of crowdsourced Near Miss and Dangerous Location reports provided by people who walk, bike or drive on Northern Virginia streets, roads and sidewalks. TREDS (Traffic Records Electronic Data System) data is also provided in the dashboard to allow exploration of potential correlations between Near Miss, Dangerous Location and actual crash data provided by the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles.
The collected data is available to the public at no cost. This data is also used to inform Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT), Fairfax County Department of Transportation (FCDOT), Alexandria Transportation and Environmental Services (T&ES), Arlington Department of Environmental Services (DES), and our elected where there are high risk locations that require attention — before people are killed or injured.
Read more about this here and bookmark the survey on your mobile photo to easily report incidents: https://novasafestreets.org/near-miss-and-dangerous-intersection-survey/
Did not know of the reporting system but it seems that neither does VDOT. VDOT is a great agency for collecting paper but never taking action on glaring trouble spots. . It should be in charge o f collecting recycling paper. Does Mason District still have a police force? Where is it in red light runners?