Two young children are still in the hospital with injuries sustained in a high-speed crash that killed two adults early Sunday in Fairfax County, Virginia, police say.
Data from the vehicle that crashed shows it was traveling at 116 mph five seconds before the crash on Chain Bridge Road over Interstate 66, just after midnight Sunday. Police said three of the people in the car did not have seat belts on.
A 2-year-old remains hospitalized with life-threatening injuries, according to Fairfax County police. The child’s parents were both killed in the crash: Xiomara Herrera, 30, of Falls Church; and Alejandro Rodriguez Castillo, 27, of Sterling.
“We have now two fatalities. We’re probably going to have three, and we are maintaining close contact with the family,” Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis said during a news conference Monday.
An 8-year-old child who was in the backseat was also taken to the hospital after the crash. The child is a family friend and their injuries are not considered life-threatening, police said.
What happened
Davis said Herrera was driving a Mercedes GLA 250 eastbound in the I-66 express lanes when she took an exit to Chain Bridge Road, struck a median on Route 123 and came to a stop when the car “collided very violently with the bridge wall.”
“We know speed was an absolute factor in this fatal crash,” Davis said. “We suspect there may be more than one factor.”
Herrera died at the scene and Castillo, who was in the passenger seat, later died at the hospital.
The 8-year-old was the only person in the car properly buckled in, police said.
While Davis said most drivers and passengers are buckling up, he said the county has seen an uptick in deaths where the person wasn’t properly restrained during a crash. Since 2023, 12 people have died in crashes without seat belts on — four of those people were killed in the first half of 2026.
“A great deal of these collisions are actually survivable, but they’re not survivable if you’re not restrained,” Davis said. “We’re seeing a disproportionate amount of our fatal motor vehicle collisions this year alone, and we’re not even halfway through 2026, involving unrestrained drivers and unrestrained passengers.”
Children ages 2 or under should be in a rear-facing car seat with a harness. Kids between the ages of 2 and 8 should be put in a booster seat under state law, according to police.
Police are asking anyone with information about Sunday’s crash to contact the department at 1-866-411-TIP.
²ÝÝ®´«Ã½’s Matt Small contributed to this report.Â
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