A 93-year-old woman died earlier this week from injuries she sustained in a car crash on Leesburg Pike (Route 7) in Bailey’s Crossroads, police say.
Gladys Bilbao, a Falls Church resident, was in the front passenger seat of a 2007 Toyota Corolla when the driver collided with a 2023 Toyota GR86 in the South Jefferson Street intersection around 7 p.m. on Feb. 16, according to the Fairfax County Police Department.
“Preliminarily, detectives determined the driver of the Toyota Corolla turned left onto South Jefferson Street from eastbound Leesburg Pike, in front of the Toyota GR86, which was traveling west on Leesburg Pike, resulting in the crash,” the FCPD said in a news release. “The Corolla and GR86 both had two occupants per vehicle. All four occupants involved were transported to area hospitals for treatment.”
Detectives were notified on Wednesday (Feb. 21) that Bilbao had died from her injuries, the FCPD announced yesterday (Thursday).
An investigation into the crash is ongoing, specifically to determine “whether speed was a factor,” police said.
According to the FCPD, Bilbao is the seventh person to die in a traffic crash in Fairfax County this year, more than doubling the three fatalities recorded at this time in 2023. The count doesn’t appear to include this year’s two pedestrian fatalities, which both stemmed from crashes in the Richmond Highway corridor, where four people have died this month.
A 2022 study conducted by the immigrant advocacy organization CASA and nonprofit Coalition for Smarter Growth identified the Bailey’s Crossroads section of Route 7 as a dangerous road for pedestrians, citing frequent speeding by drivers and a lack of crosswalks and sidewalks. Last year, the Virginia Department of Transportation reduced the speed limit from 40 to 35 mph between the Falls Church and Alexandria city limits.
The speed limit was also lowered on much of Richmond Highway last May.
Image via Google Maps
