Advocacy group calls for Route 7 safety audit following fatal crash study

An advocacy group is pushing for changes in Fairfax County with some sobering figures. The group says 91% of fatalities along Leesburg Pike, Virginia's Route 7, happened in the dark. And Fox 5's Stephanie Ramirez, she's been looking further into this study. Joining us now live along Leesburg Pike by the Tyson's Corner Mall area. What did you find, Steph? Well, Marissa, I'll tell you, this group, what they are really hoping is that local and state transportation officials will take their study and use that to really audit Leesburg Pike, Route 7 behind me here, especially because this area is due for rapid bus transit. as part of the plans for the future. Now, the group is the Northern Virginia Families for Safe Streets. They recently came out with a study assessing police data from 2017 through June 2026, specifically looking at Route 7, Leesburg Pike, between Seven Corners and Beauregard. They found that 10 of the 11. 11 recorded fatalities, the fatal crashes along the corridor happened at night, that 86% of those crashes involved pedestrians killed, and that most of those crash points were found to be close to pedestrian destinations like retail and bus stops. On the major Route 7 here at Leesburg Pike, when we saw the audit, when we say the word audit, excuse me, they're really talking about looking at the infrastructure and also studying visibility, looking at the crosswalks. Now, Marissa, Steve had asked earlier. About fatal crash data inside versus outside of crosswalks. What we see in this study is that it is a big issue. The report does dig into details on at least two fatalities previously happening along Leesburg Pike that, yes, did happen outside of the crosswalks. It also notes that pedestrians are usually at the highest risk on this corridor and that people essentially jaywalking in the Bailey's Crossroads area especially to get to shopping destinations, that's a major concern. They also talk about how another concern they see in different parts of Leesburg Pike This podcast has to do with the... route to get to a bus stop just too long. And so they want transportation officials to really look at whether a shorter crosswalk distance is better. And then in another section on near misses, guys, in this area, they say one of the biggest issues they see on near misses has to do with vehicles not stopping for pedestrians in those crosswalks. Steve.