Fatal crash remains under investigation, seeking information/witnesses

Members of the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office Traffic Division, with the assistance of members of the Virginia State Police Crash Reconstruction Team, continue to investigate a fatal crash on August 8th that claimed the life of a 17-year-old Frederick County resident and left a second female seriously injured.

Sarah Ehrhardt of Frederick County died as a result of injuries sustained when the vehicle she was traveling in crashed and ultimately split in two after the driver lost control while driving at an excessive rate of speed. The driver, Nicholas Ehrhardt, (Sarah’s brother), and his 18-year-old girlfriend, Magdelyn Germain, were both seated in the front with Sarah in the backseat as the three were on the way to Leesburg. At approximately 3:20 pm Nicholas was in the left lane of Route 7 coming around a bend, at a very high rate of speed, when his vehicle dipped off the left edge of the roadway and onto the gravel shoulder.

From there, Ehrhardt came back up onto the pavement, where he lost control and came sliding back across both eastbound lanes and off the right shoulder of the roadway. The vehicle next made significant impacts with a fence, a business sign, and a parked vehicle, with the body and frame of the Ford separating into two pieces. During the course of the crash events, Germain was ejected out onto the roadway after a catastrophic failure of the seat belt system and was subsequently flown to the trauma center at INOVA Fairfax Hospital where she was treated for serious, possibly life-threatening injuries, but expected to survive. Nicholas Ehrhardt was transported to Winchester Medical Center where he was treated, and released, for minor injuries sustained after the crash.

Sarah Ehrhardt was pronounced dead at the scene Speed has been determined to have been a factor in this crash and the incident remains under investigation looking into the presence of other possible factors contributing to the cause. Anyone traveling the section of Route 7 between Regency Lakes and the Clarke County line on 8/8/21 between 3:00 – 3:25pm, who believes they may have pertinent information, is asked to contact Lt. Warren Gosnell or Deputy T.M. Cram at 540-662-6162. Anyone operating a personal dash camera system in this area during that time is also asked to contact Gosnell or Cram.