Simon Pedro Urbino-Vasquez survived a car accident. According to police reports, the 27-year-old Fairfax County resident, was driving southbound on S. Henry Street on July 8 when he lost control of his vehicle. But one of his two passengers, his 24-year old brother Jose Wuilver Urbina-Vasquez, was not as fortunate. Jose Urbina-Vasquez died in the accident, and now Simon Pedro Urbino-Vasquez is being charged with vehicular manslaughter related to driving under the influence.
According to Laura Binz, communications officer for the Alexandria Police Department, Jose Urbina-Vasquez is the first DUI-related traffic fatality in 2017 and the second traffic related fatality in 2017. The first, on May 8, occurred when a 79-year-old man driving south on Quaker Lane proceeded through a red light and struck another vehicle at the intersection with Duke Street. The driver was killed at the scene, and the two occupants in the other car were treated for non-life threatening injuries.
Two traffic-related deaths already puts Alexandria at a high for recent years. There were no traffic related deaths in 2016, though there were four pedestrian deaths counted separately. Between 2013 and 2015 there was one traffic related death each year, and none in 2012. In 2016 there were 296 driving under the influence arrests, part of a steady trend of decreasing arrests. In 2013 there were 349 DUI arrests, falling to 344 in 2014 and 299 in 2015.