BURKE, Va. — A community meeting was held virtually Tuesday night by Braddock District Supervisor for Fairfax County, James Walkinshaw. The topic was Burke Centre Parkway and the deadly crash that happened on July 18th.
"It served two purposes. First to update the community on everything that has happened since the terrible tragedy on July 18th. So that's the police investigation of the crash and the Virginia Department of Transportation's work to begin their investigation of the crash and their analysis of the intersection to see whether safety improvements can be made. Most importantly to give the community the opportunity to provide feedback before any decisions are made," said Supervisor Walkinshaw.
One of the more than 70 people who attended the virtual meeting was Rebekah Zarco's father. She would have turned 18 next month, and was looking forward to attending George Mason University's School of Engineering in the fall, according to her dad.
He told WUSA9 Tuesday night that his family doesn't go a second without thinking about Rebekah, but says right now their energy is focused on the recovery of his son, who was seriously hurt in the crash.
He shared that he is beyond grateful to the community for the outpouring of support they've received. A GoFundMe page had more than $80,000 in donations as of Tuesday night. He says so many people have stepped up to help from neighbors, to the nurses taking care of his son, and local law enforcement.
"Something should be done to prevent this from ever happening again. What that is? I really don't have a solution. What we're going through, I don't wish this upon anyone," he said.
The meeting started with a presentation by Fairfax County Police (FCPD.) They shared some details about the crash and their recent traffic enforcement initiatives.
FCPD says between January and April of this year there were more than 12 crashes along Burke Centre Parkway, which spans about 3.5 miles. That's compared to 39 crashes in 2022 and 41 crashes in 2021.
Between July 24th and July 29th, WUSA9 was there as FCPD honed in on traffic enforcement along Burke Centre Parkway. Tuesday night the department shared that in that timeframe 440 citations were issued.
A representative from the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) shared that they are looking into if changes are needed in the specific spot where the crash happened.
A petition to add a traffic light to the intersection had more than 2,300 signatures as of Tuesday night.
During the meeting, several people chimed in on possible ideas, including adding a traffic light or blocking off the median to keep people from making a left-hand turn out of the shopping center.
VDOT shared the following timeline of their process with this particular intersection:
Review official police crash report (September 2023)
Collect speed data for the potential speed limit study (September-October 2023)
Collect traffic data for feasibility to a traffic signal study (September-October 2023)
Develop recommended improvements (October 2023)
Present (TBD)
Implement (TBD)
They shared that we could see changes made sometime in October.
Supervisor Walkinshaw expressed his condolences to the families impacted and said as a parent, he can't even begin to imagine what they're going through. He shared that what the community can do right now, is help make changes so that this doesn't happen at that intersection ever again and to bring awareness to the dangers of reckless driving.
"In an instant you can take someone's life, you can lose your own life, you can change your life forever. I hope everyone out there who's watching this, following this incident, will take this to heart because this is not a joke. This is very serious. When you get in the car and turn the car on you're taking on a very serious responsibility," said Walkinshaw.