CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. -- On a road already marked with many memorials, another person has died in a crash along Hull Street Road in Chesterfield County.
“It's sad because if you go down this road, you'll see there are quite a few crosses. I think there's like six to seven of them," neighbor Cassie Mullins said.
This time, the crash victim was a months-old child.
Chesterfield Police said a pickup truck with a camper lawfully and completely pulled off the side of Hull Street Road, right next to the Skinquarter Landfill near the intersection at Skinquarter Road, on Monday afternoon.
“There’s a turn lane that goes into a landfill right here where the dump truck is, and they were to the right of that turn lane on the shoulder," Sgt. Stephan Rouze, with Chesterfield Police, said as he pointed to the area of the crash scene.
Just seconds after the driver of the camper pulled over, a mother driving a Toyota Sedan with her infant in the car ran right into the camper.
Rouze said it happened so quickly that the driver hadn't even gotten out of his vehicle yet.
According to the initial evidence, Rouze said the mother was more than 15 feet away from where she should have been in her lane at the time of the crash.
The mom was seriously injured and taken to a hospital.
Her baby, identified as Jy'Aire Jackson, died at the scene.
CBS 6 asked if the child was secured in a car seat.
“There was a car seat involved," Rouze said. “There was a lot of damage to the car, specifically where that child was seated. There's a lot of what we would call an intrusion into the vehicle, so yeah, it was a very bad crash."
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Rouze said investigators are still determining whether speeding was involved, and he said it doesn't appear that anyone was impaired.
He added it was too early in the investigation to determine whether charges will be filed.
Mullins, who drives through the area almost every day, said she was sadly not surprised to hear about the crash.
For a while, she said she's been concerned about increased traffic and unsafe driving behaviors along this part of Hull Street Road, especially near the curves around Skinquarter.
“There are people going in excess of 65 to 70 miles an hour around the turn. They don't slow down, and it's dangerous," Mullins said.
In that stretch of Hull Street Road, DMV data shows at least:
- 3 crashes in 2022
- 8 crashes in 2021
- 5 crashes in 2020
- 7 crashes in 2019
Mullins said she wished people would slow down, pay more attention, and that officials would make safety improvements to the roadways.
“After all those people have passed and now this one, nothing's changed, and it's just, there's no improvement," Mullins said. "The roads are old out here, and they're not equipped for the amount of traffic that's out here. They're just not."
Rouze said while every crash was unique, there are specific challenges to this area.
"We are dealing with a stretch of roadway [where] the next traffic light is miles down the road in Amelia," Rouze said. "So, you're coming from a country area to a congested area, and some people have been driving for a very long time."
CBS 6 reached out to Chesterfield County to ask if the county has submitted any requests to the Virginia Department of Transportation which maintains the roadway.
"We have not requested, or plan to request, VDOT to lower the speed limit on this section of Route 360," a county spokesperson responded.
CBS 6 reached out to VDOT as well and is still waiting for a response.
"People need to stop dying on our roadways, especially when almost every crash is preventable. Every crash has a human element, and people need to make that conscious choice to stop doing the things that cause them to crash," Rouze said.
This is a developing story, so anyone with more information can email newstips@wtvr.com to send a tip. If you see breaking news, and can do so safely, shoot a photo or video and send it to CBS 6. You can also upload photos to our Facebook page or email pics@wtvr.com from your phone.
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