Pedestrian killed on Richmond Highway (updated)

Screenshot from VDOT’s traffic camera on Thursday evening showing Richmond Highway closed near North Kings Highway.

A woman was hit by a car on Richmond Highway in the Penn Daw area on Thursday evening and later died a local hospital.

Peace Nana Asante, 51, was hit by a person driving a 2001 Toyota Corolla in the southbound lanes near the intersection of South Kings Highway (see map) sometime around 8 p.m. Asante was a resident of the Alexandria area of Fairfax County, according to police.

The driver stayed on the scene and is cooperating with detectives, police said. The FCPD’s crash reconstruction team responded to the scene and are continuing to investigate.

The police said Asante was crossing outside of the crosswalk. Alcohol does not appear to be a factor for either the driver or pedestrian, police said. Detectives are still investigating whether speed was a factor in the crash, according to the police.

A helicopter photo tweeted by an ABC7 reporter showed traffic being diverted onto South Kings Highway after the crash, with the police blocking off the area of Route 1 in front of the Wells Fargo bank.

Thursday’s crash marked the first pedestrian death this year on Richmond Highway between the Capital Beltway and Fort Belvoir. In 2019 two pedestrians were killed along this stretch and eight others were injured, according to unofficial Virginia Highway Safety Office statistics.