In the Bull Run Mountain area, Logmill Road, with its rolling hills, is known as “Roller Coaster Road.”
A section of it is known as “thrill hill,” where drivers speed for the thrill of going airborne.
Since 2000, at least seven young people have died in crashes on Logmill Road, including 15-year-old Kendra Tucker, who was pronounced dead at the scene of a crash near Logmill Road and James Madison Highway just after midnight Wednesday.
But the problem’s not the road, police said. It’s speeding.
“There are issues with speeding on that road,” said Prince William County police spokesman Jonathan Perok. “The road itself is not dangerous. Drivers often ignore posted signs which line that road. That’s what leads to the crashes.”
The speed limit on the road is 40 miles per hour and yellow warning signs along portions suggest a “safe speed” of 15 miles per hour.
But drivers continue to speed there, police said.
Speed was a factor in Wednesday’s crash, which killed Tucker and injured four other teens, including the 18-year-old driver, Perok said.
Police were still investigating that crash Wednesday and did not yet know how fast the car was travelling.
Speed was also a factor in a July 25, 2000 crash that killed James “Marty” Romans, who lost control of his car and crashed into a field at Rollingwood Farm.
A few months later, on Nov. 22, 2000, 19-year-old Michael Norrish died after a car he was riding in crashed through a fence and hit a tree on Logmill Road. Police said speed and alcohol was a factor in that crash.
Then, in Nov. 18, 2004, 12-year-old Rachel Kaplan and 26-year-old Alejandro Garcia Martinez, passengers in separate cars, died in a two-vehicle crash at the crest of a hill at the intersection of Logmill Road and Parnell Court. Speed and alcohol were factors in that crash, police said at the time.
Most recently, on Aug. 15, 2010, 18-year-old Stephen Dixon lost control of his car at the top of the hill on Logmill, swerving into the path of an oncoming car, sending that car into a ditch and flipping his own. Dixon and 15-year-old Derek Mefferet, a passenger in his car, died at the scene.
Police said speed and alcohol were factors in that crash as well.
Staff writer Amanda Stewart can be reached at 703-530-3908.
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