Commentary: In Light of Horrific Virginia Deaths, Consider Others When Behind the Wheel

Guadalupe Rivera – landscaping supervisor, family man, helper – suffered a needless, ghastly death because, police said, a speeding car collided with an SUV before striking Rivera on a Chesapeake sidewalk, where the 60-year-old Suffolk man was working.

Police said the male driver of the sedan at the center of the mayhem May 29 was racing so fast that he also dislodged the engine of the SUV he struck first and damaged a nearby utility pole. The speed limit along that stretch is just 35 mph.

“This is the most devastating news we’ve ever heard,” Andrea Magallan, one of Rivera’s eight children, told me by email. A news report said he had 33 grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Speed has been the key factor cited by authorities in several recent fatalities along Virginia roadways, including the killing of Rivera, which is still under investigation. Both drivers in that incident suffered minor injuries. On Thursday, police said they charged Synclair Tyrone Mayes, 19, with involuntary manslaughter.

Guadalupe Rivera. (Photo courtesy of the Rivera family)

Excessive speed joins distracted driving and driving under the influence among the causes often cited by authorities for the deaths and injuries that happen too often, here in Virginia and elsewhere.

There’s also a lack of concern for fellow human beings when folks get behind the wheel. So we scoff at posted speed limits. We text, though it’s illegal while driving in Virginia and nearly every other state. We eat. We fiddle with the gadgets on the dashboard.

In other words, we don’t care about anyone but ourselves, our desires, and our schedule.

“Reckless driving isn’t new,” Brad Lehmann, assistant professor of criminal justice at Virginia Commonwealth University and a former sergeant with the Henrico County Police Department, told me in an interview. “But we have an interesting kind of storm where a generational change is happening, and our driving behaviors have changed. There’s distraction from devices and electronics in the vehicle.”

Meanwhile, he added, pedestrians and bicyclists can be so focused on their own phones or earplugs that they might not recognize nearby cars and trucks. The 4,000-pound missiles are a threat to their safety.

“It’s a mixture of instant gratification and risky behaviors,” Lehmann noted.

Sadly, the death of Rivera wasn’t the only traffic fatality across Virginia in recent days. Others have been just as gut-wrenching:

Four members of a Massachusetts family and another person were killed on May 29 when a passenger bus speeding south on Interstate 95 struck a vehicle that had slowed down for a work zone in Stafford County.

The crash caused a chain reaction. Dozens of passengers were injured. Jing S. Dong, 48, the bus driver, faces involuntary manslaughter charges and reckless driving charges.

Later reports said Dong, of Staten Island, New York, had been scheduled to stand trial on June 2 in Annapolis, Maryland, for a previous arrest on speeding while driving a coach bus. Virginia court records revealed he’d earlier been cited for speeding, too, in the commonwealth.

A day later, a crash on I-95 in Caroline County killed two people and injured another person. Witnesses told wtvr.com a SUV was speeding down the left shoulder before striking debris and losing control.

The SUV then flew across the median into oncoming traffic headed northbound. What was so important that the driver tried something so illegal and risky by racing along the shoulder?

An 86-year-old male pedestrian in Norfolk died after a hit-and-run crash, Norfolk police said, late the night of June 1. Police said they later located the suspected driver, Malik Alea-Ngongo, 24, of Norfolk, and arrested him near the scene of the accident. Investigators didn’t immediately know whether speed or alcohol was a factor.

Yusuke Yamani, an associate professor in the departments of psychology and civil and environmental engineering at Old Dominion University, said traffic fatalities have been declining nationwide and in the commonwealth since a post-COVID spike.

They remain higher, however, compared to a decade ago. In Virginia, the total number of fatalities was 700 in 2014. That figure leaped to 918 in 2024.

What’s going on nowadays? Bad behavior obviously isn’t new, but it seems to be more lethal on our roads.

“Speeding, impaired driving, red-light running, and road rage are all forms of reckless driving that have existed for decades,” Yamani said by email. “However, today’s driving environment is different.

“New information technologies (e.g., smartphones and infotainment systems), reduced traffic enforcement in some areas, attitudinal shifts among younger drivers, and behavioral changes following the pandemic have all contributed to a changing landscape of driver behavior.”

The professor cited the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety’s culture index for more information. He noted the 2024 report found fewer drivers perceived speeding as dangerous, “suggesting that speeding may be becoming increasingly normalized. Notably, speeding tends to draw less social condemnation than many other risky driving behaviors, despite contributing to roughly one-third of all fatal crashes.”

Lehmann, the VCU professor, noted Richmond has suffered a number of pedestrian deaths in recent months, some involving well-known victims. He wondered whether people think it’s OK to fiddle with a device while driving, or to go 25 mph above the speed limit, even if they have passengers.

“I don’t know that we are prioritizing the humanity in front of us,” he said.

Rivera’s relatives wish we would. His brother Joe told a newscast that Guadalupe Rivera “would talk to anybody, try to help anybody he could.”

His 33-year-old daughter Andrea Magallan, in her comments to me, called him “our protector, our biggest supporter, and our hero.”

Folks, put the phone down or turn it off when behind the wheel. Pay attention to the road, not the radio. Don’t imbibe and drive.

And please, please ease up on the gas.

by Roger Chesley, Virginia Mercury

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