Two Falls Church intersections — one a major crossroads, the other somewhat less expected — accounted for a large portion of the city’s collisions in 2025.
Of 134 crashes recorded in the city last year, 42 took place at the intersection of Washington Street and E. Broad Street, according to the Falls Church Police Department’s annual report. That’s almost 1 in 3.
That was no surprise to Council members. That major crossroads always “blows everything else away” in terms of incidents because of traffic volume, Council member Arthur Agin said.
“I don’t know what the answer is” to reduce the number of incidents there, he acknowledged.
Agin did express surprise about the second most dangerous intersection: E. Broad Street and Roosevelt Street, which had 18 vehicular accidents in 2025.
Police Chief Shahram Fard, who presented the police report to City Council members on Monday night, pointed to a number of factors: “Impatience, speed, disregarding the red light, the traffic flow in the mornings.”
Rounding out the top five collision hot spots were:
- S. Washington Street and Hillwood Avenue (15)
- N. Washington Street and Columbia Street (14)
- W. Broad Street and S. West Street (11)
The remainder were dotted throughout the city.
At the meeting, Fard said the department is working with Virginia Tech to improve data collection in incidents involving vehicle impacts with pedestrians and bicyclists, as well as near-misses.
“We’re working on that — we want that information,” he said.
Most incidents involving pedestrians and bicyclists come at intersections. “Left turns generally are very, very dangerous” due to hidden sight lines and visual distractions, Fard said.
At the July 13 meeting, Council members generally were upbeat on the overall state of public safety in the city. Council member Erin Flynn thanked Fard for the police department’s “continued community engagement efforts and outreach.”
