Safer Old Bridge Road site of another wreck

It wasn't immediately clear Sunday afternoon how a woman flipped her Ford Mustang on Old Bridge Road, but fire and rescue officials said that the area where she crashed is known for wrecks.

The 24-year-old Woodbridge woman who was not identified was driving west on the four-lane road between Colby Drive and Forest Hill Road, when her car hit the bank on the right side of the road and flipped on its passenger side. That potion of the road slopes into a steep culvert and bottoms out in a dangerous S curve.

Rescue crews form OWL Volunteer Fire and Rescue Department had to pull her out of the car as fuel from the gas tank seeped into a nearby ditch. The woman had injuries that did not appear to be life-threatening and she refused to go to the hospital.

Fire crews used dirt from the embankment to stop the fuel from seeping farther down the hill.

This portion of Old Bridge Road between Colby Drive and Forest Hill Road in Lake Ridge got a lot of attention after 16-year-old girl was killed in a car crash there in January.

Sunday's crash was about 100 feet from where 16-year-old Shelby Nicholson of Lake Ridge was killed after the Chevy Aveo she was riding in slid off the road, crossed the median and collided with an oncoming SUV.

She and a friend, who was driving the car, were coming home from the mall. Shelby was killed instantly and her friend spent more than a month in the hospital recovering from the crash.

The posted speed along that stretch of road is 45 mph, with a suggested safe speed of 35 mph.

In March, the Virginia Department of Transportation announced plans to improve the westbound portion of the road, the side that Nicholson was on when she was killed.

Crews began work on the $242,500 project about a month later.

Now crews are nearly finished and VDOT spokeswoman Jennifer McCord said crews have made some major im-provements to the road.

The left and right lanes are now both 24 feet wide, up from the old 22. The shoulder was also paved and lined with rumble strips to alert motorists who might be driving off the road, McCord said. On Sunday, the crashed Mustang overturned onto those rumple strips.

The shoulders were also widened to eight feet and the curve's bank was increased from none to about 4 per-cent, McCord added.

All that is left to do is add a longer portion of guardrail along the road.

In 2004, $500,000 of federal money was approved for roadway improvements in that area. VDOT said in March that the project was delayed since that time because it was still in the development phase.

A spokesman also said the eastbound side of the road could be improved with the rest of the federal money.

Staff writer Uriah A. Kiser can be reached at 703-878-8065.