A Fairfax County man was indicted by a Rappahannock County grand jury Monday for eluding, reckless driving and other charges related to a 120 mph chase on Route 211 that resulted in a three-vehicle crash.
Virginia State Police Trooper Eric Smith attempted to pull over Matthew Kidd, 19, of Burke last Aug. 2 after Kidd passed the officer on a black motorbike at over 85 mph along the Amissville stretch of Route 211, according to a criminal complaint. When Smith activated his lights, he wrote in the complaint, Kidd sped off, weaving through traffic which resulted in a three-vehicle crash.
Kidd was airlifted to a hospital in Fairfax with serious injuries, the complaint said, but has since been released. Passengers in the other two vehicles did not sustain major injuries.
“Speeds during the pursuit reached 115-120 mph,” Smith wrote.
Kidd will appear back in Circuit Court on April 16.
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Ireland joined Foothills Forum as a full-time reporter in 2023 after graduating from the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication with a degree in journalism and minor in music. As a student, she gained valuable experience in reporter and editor positions at The Red & Black, an award-winning student newspaper, and contributed to Grady Newsource and the Athens Banner-Herald. She spent three years as an editorial assistant at Georgia Magazine, UGA’s quarterly alumni publication, and interned with The Bitter Southerner.
Growing up in a small town in Southeast Georgia, Ireland developed a deep appreciation for rural communities and the unique stories they have to tell. She completed undergraduate research on news deserts, ghost papers and the ways rural communities in Georgia are being forced to adapt to a lack of local news. This research further sparked her interest in a career contributing to the preservation of local and rural news.
