FABB Blog

 

Arlington cyclist struck by motorist at W&OD Trail and Maple Ave - Update

Today at about 5:15pm a cyclist was riding through the crosswalk at Maple Ave and the W&OD Trail when a motorist ran the red light and struck the cyclist. He was thrown forward. He was able to get up and walk but he may have internal injuries. The Vienna EMS people arrived shortly after being called and Vienna police (Officer Mangan) arrived shortly after that. The motorist had New York tags. The cyclist was taken to Arlington Hospital.

The photo on the right shows the cyclist sitting on a planter near the intersection. He said this was his second crash in a month, having been struck in Arlington by a motorist who turned into him.

We'll see if we can find out more information about how the cyclist is doing. The motorist was being issued a ticket as we were leaving.

When we called 911 and reported our location the dispatcher wanted to know the nearest intersection. I had just told her the crash occurred at the W&OD Trail and Maple Ave intersection. She wanted the next street intersection. We've suspected that police do not know how to identify W&OD trail/road intersections, so crashes are often reported for the nearest road intersection. An example is the W&OD Trail/Wiehle Ave intersection, the site of several crashes. The nearest intersection is Wiehle/Sunset Hills, which at one time was the location of the most bike crashes in the county. We suspect many of those crashes occurred at the W&OD Trail intersection but were not logged property. We'll check with Fairfax County police on how they treat the Trail intersections.

Update 9/14/2013 - We called Virginia Hospital Center (Arlington Hospital) and learned that the cyclist  involved in the crash was released from the hospital yesterday, but they had not information about his condition.

Labels: bike crash, town of vienna, W and OD Trail

posted by Bruce Wright at 5:42 PM permalink