Fairfax County police is stepping up traffic enforcement in reaction to a concerning spike in traffic fatalities, including pedestrian deaths.
At this point in 2025, the county had eight vehicle fatalities and three pedestrian deaths. A total of 11.
So far this year, there have been 11 pedestrian fatalities alone, in addition to 15 vehicle deaths.
“You have so many more distractions now than we had growing up,” Master Police Officer Earl Culbertson said. “You have the cellphones, the traffic, the amount of traffic. Everybody’s in a hurry in Northern Virginia.”
Officers say they generally give drivers about 15 mph over the speed limit before stopping them, but they say a lot of the drivers they are pulling over are doing 20-30 mph over the speed limit.
Culbertson was blunt about the deadly crashes police encounter.
“It’s pretty gruesome scenes, too,” he said.
Culbertson said there’s another disturbing trend at the moment.
“There’s been a lot of motorcycle accidents lately,” he said. “Motorcycle riders driving aggressively, changing lanes, people pulling out. Motorcycle is a lot harder vehicle to see compared to a vehicle.”
Fairfax County police are planning another wave of their road shark campaign, which aims to cut down on things like aggressive driving next month.
