A driver was killed on Friday (July 11) after another motorist apparently ran a red light on Monument Drive and crashed into his car, police say.
Officers were dispatched to the two-vehicle crash at the Fairfax County Parkway intersection near Fair Lakes around 1:22 p.m., according to the Fairfax County Police Department.
Photos of the scene shared by a witness on Reddit show an SUV on the curb, stopped at a pedestrian signal, and Fairfax County Fire and Rescue responders working on a sedan that had crashed into a nearby tree. Debris from the vehicles is scattered across the intersection.
According to the FCPD, a preliminary investigation found that the driver of a 2024 Hyundai Tucson was heading east on Monument Drive when they “drove through a red signal and struck a 2012 Honda Accord.”
The Accord driver — now identified as 69-year-old Stephen Rhodes of Fairfax — was taken to a hospital in life-threatening condition and later pronounced dead.
“Preliminarily alcohol does not appear to be a factor in the crash,” the FCPD said. “Detectives continue to investigate whether speed was a factor.”
There have been 16 people killed in crashes in Fairfax County so far this year, including three fatalities in July, according to preliminary state data, though that number doesn’t appear to include Rhodes. On July 6, two drivers died in a wrong-way crash on I-495 near Dunn Loring, and a pedestrian was reportedly killed last Tuesday (July 8) on the Dulles Toll Road.
Screenshot via Google Maps
