"The Dip" along Silverbrooke Road just past Gauge Drive is infamous for residents of Giles Run, a community that borders Crosspointe in the Fairfax Station area. Cars traveling south on Silverbrooke can go into the dip and not be seen by a car traveling north or turning onto Gauge, which is what happened on June 2, when an accident involving a 70-year-old man and a teen-ager reminded residents of the danger.
"I make that left turn every day. I make sure I stop up there," said Thomas Moore, an 8-year resident of Giles Run, who has witnessed a few other accidents there over the years.
For Michael Phillips, 16, it was on his mind as well.
"It's a dangerous intersection. There was another bad accident about three years ago. I don't know if there's any way they can make it so it's not blind," he said. He has seen people avoiding it.
"Some of them avoid taking that turn and cut in on the next street over and weave over," he said.
According to Fairfax County public information officer Jackie Smith, the older driver pulled in front of the teen-ager, causing the collision.
"It looks like the 70-year-old is going to be held at fault," she said.
One woman who lives a few doors up from the intersection, has seen trouble there ever since she moved in four years ago. She chose not to give her name.
"When we first moved in, there was a wreck there every weekend. The car was totally mangled. I don't see how he got out," she said of the recent accident. "It's more than dangerous. People are going to be dead."
Crosspointe Road, which is the next street up Silverbrooke, parallel to Gauge, is used for cut-through traffic to Route 123. Newcomer Caroline Mueller found that out the hard way. Her family moved into their house on Crosspointe in May, and their car was hit soon after. It was parked in front of the house along the curb, but the cut-through cars treat the residential road like a through road.
"We had lived here one week. They may not be going that fast, but they're going over 25 [mph]," she said.
A FEW DOORS DOWN from Mueller, Sue Keitelman is in charge of a petition to get traffic-calming measures from Fairfax County Department of Transportation. Her car was hit in March 2001, when it was parked in front of her house.
"My husband’s car was totaled. It was a girl, with a learner’s permit, that fell asleep at the wheel," she said.
Elzora Dalrymple lives across the street and signed the petition. She noticed the drivers flying by did not fit any stereotypes.
"Pretty much everybody on this street signed it. Last week the police officers were out here ticketing. Most of them were moms and dads. It's completely across gender," she said.
According to Smith, there were 11 accidents at the intersection of Silverbrooke and Crosspointe and zero at the intersection of Gauge and Silverbrooke since June 2000 until the accident in May.
Traffic-calming measures listed in a Virginia Department of Transportation pamphlet include speed humps, chokers (physical constrictions to narrow travel lanes), raised crosswalks, traffic circles, crosswalk refuge (for pedestrians) and a chicane (alternating constrictions built curbside so that vehicles travel in a snake-like fashion).
In Supervisor Elaine McConnell's (R-Springfield) office, Steve Edwards monitors the traffic situations. He looked at the police statistics for accidents as well.
"The accident rate there is nominal. We've got to look at driving behavior," he said.
Edwards is also aware of the cut-through traffic, which is not only limited to Crosspointe.
"We've got so many of these to discourage cut through and reduce the speeds," he said.
Fixing the problems do require funding as well. Edwards looks at the half-cent sales-tax referendum in November as the only solution.
"We're trying to address those with the confines or our budget. That [sales tax] may be the only solution to fixing these issues," he said.