Despite a Do Not Enter Sign, this driver headed the wrong way down this Fairfax County Parkway Off-Ramp.
Presumed Fairfax County Resident and Redditor /u/Nahmeanbrah shared surprising dashcam footage from Chantilly from earlier this November (Nov 27, 2024) showing an inattentive driver headed the wrong way down this Fairfax County Parkway off-ramp.
Check out the dashcam footage below.
[oc] They ended up turning around
byu/nahmeanbrah inIdiotsInCars
The incident happened near the intersection with this Fairfax County Parkway (286) Off-Ramp and Fair Lakes Parkway (exact location on Google Maps linked here.)
As OP’s dashcam footage shows, he’s just exited the Fairfax County Parkway in the middle of the night and is headed towards Fair Lakes Parkway when all of a sudden the headlights of another car can be seen driving towards him.
As this screenshot of Fair Lakes Parkway before that off-ramp shows, there’s a Do Not Enter sign warning drivers not to turn left onto the highway.
Thankfully, it looks like the confused driver gets the hint, pulls into the emergency brake down lane, and signals, warning drivers he’s about to pull a u-turn to get going in the right direction.
“They end up turning around,” OP’s thread title reads.
“OP, you might have literally saved lives. Good on you,” /u/RiceILove added.
What /u/IRiceILove said does hold some truth as, according to the NTSB,
“…around 22% of wrong-way driving collisions result in fatalities, which is significantly higher compared to the fatality rate of all other highway accidents, estimated at around 0.3%”
And, in Virginia, driving the wrong way down a road is punishable by a fine of up to $100 before fees.
Despite how well-lighted, marked, and, easily navigatable a road may be, it’s in our best interest to always drive defensively, especially when we want to keep our guard down.
Yep, I encountered the wrong way driver on the offramp from Fairfax County Parkway at Fair Lakes last year and then another min Manassas a couple of weeks later. A couple of months ago we passed a wrong way on Route 29 around midnight. I should put my camera in my car. Be careful out there.