ALEXANDRIA, Va. — On her front lawn in the Alexandria area, Debi Gerald looked through a photo album. This album is not filled with childhood memories or family portraits. Every page is full of crash photos.
"Our mailbox down at that point," she laughed, pointing at one of the pages.
Gerald lives in a home along Lincolnia Road, nestled in between Columbia Pike and Little River Turnpike. She said this stretch, which many drivers use as a cut-between, has become a hotspot for crashes.
“Cars have been running off the road for as long as I can remember,” she said.
Along with her mother, Gerald started tracking every crash in a spreadsheet last year. In 2022, the duo documented 27 crashes, and so far in 2023, they've counted 15.
With each incident, Gerald jots down the date in one cell and notes in the other, using sentences like "car into ditch" or 'two signs hit.' On June 24, 2023, she jotted down an especially dramatic note.
"Three car accident at Lincolnia Rd. and Sano St. One car ended up in our yard. That driver was taken to the hospital for pain due to airbag deployment."
Gerald said that this crash could have been a lot worse.
"We woke up to a loud noise," she said. "And there was a car in our front yard. That easily could have happened when my 84-year-old mother was out cutting the grass in the front yard.”
Gerald is uniquely suited for this project.
Her late-brother, Wes Gerald, was a fire dispatcher for Fairfax County, and had a passion for fire photography. When he passed away, Debi took up the camera, to honor his memory, as documented by WUSA9 in 2019.
"There's probably not a day that goes by when I don't think about my brother," she said in 2019. "But this does help. Knowing that it meant so much to him. Now it means this much for me as well."
Due to this background, Gerald is used to having the scanner blaring at all hours. When a crash happens nearby, she is able to respond quickly to snap a photo.
Gerald has brought this data to the Virginia Department of Transportation, urging them to lower the speed limit. However, VDOT has so far turned down this request, as explained in a statement to WUSA9:
"VDOT was contacted by Supervisor Gross’s office regarding an inquiry into changing the speed limit on Lincolnia Rd. A speed limit study was conducted for Lincolnia Rd. between Barnum Lane and Columbia Pike and based on the findings of the study, the recommendation was to maintain the speed limit of 35 mph."
"VDOT adheres to specific policies along with the Code of Virginia to ultimately determine if a speed limit study is required and a change is necessary. Not only is crash and speed data considered, by also such things as pedestrian activity, roadway context, and driveway density are included in the study. Once a speed study is completed, a decision can be made in coordination with the district traffic engineer, district traffic operations director, and finally the state traffic engineer to implement the change, if necessary."
Despite VDOT's response, Gerald said that she'd keep fighting for changes on Lincolnia Road.
"We are concerned about our neighbors," she said. "We’re concerned about the amount of damage done to cars.”