Pedestrian Killed on Interstate 495

By Jennifer Van der Kleut

A woman who Virginia State Troopers believe exited her car on the side of the road on eastbound I-495 in the Franconia area to smoke a cigarette is dead after being struck by a vehicle Friday night.

The collision also set off a chain-reaction crash involving four vehicles.

According to a statement by state police, at around 10:13 p.m. Friday evening a 2005 Mercedes SUV stopped on the right shoulder on I-495 east at the 173-mile marker, just east of the Eisenhower Connector Exit. 

"A passenger, Echo D. Davis, 27, of Benson, N.C., exited to presumably smoke a cigarette, and was seen by multiple witnesses wandering into and then running across the travel lanes," said Corinne Geller, the state police's public information director. "A 2007 Subaru SUV traveling east on I-495 was unable to avoid Davis and struck her."

Davis died at the scene, Geller reported.

Geller said there was also a second, chain-reaction crash behind the pedestrian collision, at 11:23 p.m. Friday. The second crash involved four vehicles. 

"Three vehicles were stopped in the eastbound lanes due the crash ahead when a fourth eastbound vehicle failed to stop in time for traffic and struck the third vehicle," Geller said. "That vehicle hit the second vehicle…that vehicle hit the first vehicle in line."

The drivers of the second and third vehicles were transported to local hospitals for treatment of non-life threatening injuries, Geller reported - but the driver and passenger of the fourth vehicle both fled the scene on foot into the woods. 

Fairfax City police dispatched two tracking canine units and a helicopter to search for the two men. 

The driver, Ascencio Fabian, 32, of Springfield, Va., was located, and charged with DUI and one felony count of hit-and-run.

Geller said the pedestrian crash is still under investigation, and that the state police's Accident Reconstruction Team also responded to the scene to assist with the investigation.