A 19-year-old man from Arlington died Sunday night (March 10) after reportedly crashing into a sedan while riding his motorcycle in Bailey’s Crossroads.
Officers responded to the intersection of Leesburg Pike (Route 7) and Glen Carlyn Drive at 11:10 p.m. on Sunday for a crash involving a 1996 Yamaha motorcycle and a 2000 Acura sedan, the Fairfax County Police Department said yesterday (Monday) in a news release.
“Preliminarily, detectives determined the driver of the Acura was traveling westbound on Leesburg Pike attempting to make a left turn onto Glen Carlyn Drive when he was struck on the passenger side by the motorcyclist which was eastbound on Leesburg Pike in the left through-lane,” the FCPD said.
Alejandro Portillo, the motorcyclist, was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
According to police, the Acura driver remained at the scene of the crash and didn’t experience any injuries. The crash remains under investigation.
Portillo is the eighth person who wasn’t a pedestrian to be killed in a traffic crash on Fairfax County roads this year, according to the FCPD. At this time in 2023, there had been three such fatalities.
This is the county’s first fatal crash of 2024 involving a motorcyclist, but seven motorcyclists died in crashes last year, a fatality rate matched in 2022, according to traffic data from the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles.
In the most recent crash, an Ashburn man was charged with reckless driving for allegedly speeding when he crashed into Zafeer Piracha, 27, of Lorton, who was riding a motorcycle on Route 28 in the Chantilly area.
Portillo is the second person to die in a crash in the Bailey’s Crossroads section of Leesburg Pike this year. Gladys Bilbao, a 93-year-old Falls Church resident, died last month from injuries she sustained as a passenger in a collision between two Toyota sedans at the South Jefferson Street intersection on Feb. 16.
The Route 7 corridor in Bailey’s Crossroads was identified as particularly dangerous for pedestrians in a 2022 report by immigrant advocacy organization CASA and nonprofit Coalition for Smarter Growth.
Image via Google Maps
