A Falls Church man has died weeks after he was struck by a driver while riding an electric scooter near Gatehouse Plaza in Merrifield, police say.
Not long before midnight on the evening of April 1, the driver of a 2022 Toyota Corolla heading north on Gallows Road crashed into Mesfin Abay, 37, who was traveling east across Gallows Road at the Gatehouse Road intersection on an e-scooter, according to the Fairfax County Police Department.
“Abay was transported to a local hospital with life-threatening injuries,” the FCPD said. “The driver of the Toyota was uninjured and remained on scene.”
Detectives were notified by the state medical examiner’s office last Thursday (April 30) that Abay had died from the injuries he sustained in the crash, the FCPD announced on Friday (May 1).
The department says its detectives are interested in talking to anyone who might have information about the crash. Tips can be reported to the Crash Reconstruction Unit at 703-280-0543 or shared anonymously through Crime Solvers.
State data shows 10 traffic fatalities in Fairfax County so far this year, but by FFXnow’s count, the death toll is now at least 14 people, including Abay. The Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles collects preliminary data reported by police, so there is sometimes a lag, and numbers are subject to change.
Last year, there were 45 people killed in crashes in Fairfax County, down from 55 in 2024 and a peak of 66 in 2022, per state data.
The DMV doesn’t appear to specifically track crashes involving scooters, but a Reston man died after crashing an e-scooter he was riding near Reston Town Center in November 2022, and a scooter user in Mount Vernon was seriously injured by a hit-and-run crash in March 2025.
Screenshot via Google Maps
