Re: Helicopters Hovering Around Forum Dr & 29
Posted by:
wash post 2010
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Date: May 22, 2010 11:51PM
Fairfax cyclist and SUV driver identified
Gary Anthony Thorne, 31, of Blue Gray Circle in Manassas, was the driver of an SUV that veered across Lee Highway Friday and hit and killed bicyclist Abdelouahid Chadli, 18, of Morrison Way in Fairfax.
Fairfax police spokeswoman Mary Ann Jennings identified both victims Saturday and said police still do not know what caused Thorne's SUV to go out of control and onto the bike path. Thorne died after his vehicle hit a tree with such force that it took police hours to remove him from the crash scene.
Jennings said she did not know the identity of another cyclist injured slighlty in the accident or whether that person was related to Chadli.
The accident happened just after 4 p.m. at Lee Highway and Forum Drive, according to police and occurred on Bike to Work Day.
Jennings, the department's head spokeswoman, has said the driver apparently veered across six lanes of Lee Highway before jumping the Forum Drive curb.
Chadli, who went by the nickname Abdul, lived in a townhouse on a street where other Northern African immigrants live. At the boy's home, dozens of shoes were lined up neatly at the entrance as mourners, many from the family's mosque, the Islamic Center for Northern Virginia on Shirley Gate Road, visited the grieving family. In the second floor apartment, women, their heads covered in flowing robes, consoled the boy's mother, Samira. But none would comment until the boy's father returned from the burial.
"Everybody loved him. He was very funny, very popular," said the teenager's father, Mohammed Chadli, 58, who runs deliveries for UPS. Chadli said his son, the eldest of four sons, was a dedicated athlete who was always biking or working out in the gym. Abdel was a member of the Fairfax High School wrestling squad and also liked to swim. He had just received a package of high school graduation cards and was eager to mail them to family scattered around the U.S. He had been accepted at GMU and wanted to become a veterinarian, his father said.
In a similar development a few miles away in Manassas, Thorne's stepfather, Kevin Griffin, 45, a warehouse worker, said Gary A. Thorne's family was mystified about the accident. Griffin said Thorne had no known medical condition that night have caused him to black out or lose control of the Dodge Durango, which he had owned without complaint for about a year. Griffin said Thorne drove his younger sister, Crystal, to work at a Checkers about 11:30 a.m. and no one heard anything from or about him until police arrived about 10 p.m. to notify them of the accident. Although Thorne had been laid off from his job as a forklift operator at a warehouse in Chantilly in April, he had leads on a new job and was planning to celebrate his 32nd birthday at a cookout Sunday at his father's in Mt. Airy.
Thorne leaves behind a 10-year-old daughter.