A rock hurled from a highway overpass smashed through the windshield of a Loudoun County family's SUV early Monday morning, leaving Christina and Dylan Martinez shaken and demanding that whoever did it be held accountable. The couple says they were driving home along the Dulles Greenway when the object struck their vehicle, which was also carrying their two young children and two friends.
According to FOX 5 DC, Christina and Dylan Martinez noticed several people standing on the overpass just before the rock came down and shattered their windshield. Everyone inside the SUV escaped physical injury, but the family was left badly shaken by how close the incident came to tragedy. NBC Washington reporting adds specific detail to the account, identifying the location as the Sycolin Road overpass along Route 267, the Dulles Greenway, and putting the time at approximately 12:40 a.m., with six people in the vehicle — the Martinez couple, their two children ages 2 and 9, and two friends.
Christina Martinez said the incident could have resulted in someone's death, and she said she was upset that it happened in her own community and affected her children, per the FOX 5 DC report. The Loudoun County couple is now urging authorities to locate the individuals responsible and is seeking answers after the incident. Virginia State Police have not responded to FOX 5's request for an update on the investigation, the station reports.
What Charges Could Apply
Under Virginia Code § 18.2-154, maliciously throwing any missile or object at an occupied motor vehicle so that life is put in peril is a Class 4 felony, according to Medvin Law, punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $100,000. The same statute can be upgraded to second-degree or first-degree murder charges if a victim dies. Separately, Virginia Code § 46.2-930 explicitly prohibits pedestrians from loitering on any highway bridge or right-of-way, according to the Code of Virginia, which gives law enforcement legal grounds to intervene when people linger on overpasses like the one above Sycolin Road.
A Privately Run Toll Road, Shared Patrol Duties
The Dulles Greenway, Virginia Route 267, is a privately owned and operated 14-mile toll road connecting Washington Dulles International Airport to Leesburg, according to Loudoun County, which notes the road is managed by Toll Road Investors Partnership II under a state concession agreement running through February 2056. Major highway corridors in Loudoun County, including Route 7, Route 28, Route 15, Route 50 and the Dulles Greenway, are patrolled under shared jurisdiction between the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office and the Virginia State Police, per Riley & Wells Attorneys-At-Law.
A Pattern That Predates This Incident
Overpass rock-throwing and falling-object incidents have a grim history in the region. In October 2017, a 12-year-old boy jumped from an overpass onto Interstate 66 in Northern Virginia and landed on a moving car, killing the vehicle's 22-year-old driver, according to NBC Washington coverage from that time. Further back, a 70-pound granite boulder was dropped from an unlit overpass along Interstate 95 in Spotsylvania County in June 2003, crashing through a moving vehicle's windshield and severely injuring a passenger, as reported by the Los Angeles Times at the time.
More recently, a woman in nearby Ballston in Arlington County was hospitalized in June 2026 after being struck in the head by a falling rock. Loudoun County has been investing in grade-separated pedestrian infrastructure elsewhere, having broken ground in April on a dedicated pedestrian and bicycle overpass over Sterling Boulevard for the Washington & Old Dominion Trail, according to Loudoun County. The article also discusses pedestrian overpasses on state rights-of-way and related Virginia transportation rules.
For now, the Martinez family is left waiting on investigators while processing how close a night drive home came to catastrophe. Christina Martinez has made clear she wants those responsible identified and held accountable, and the family's account, first detailed by FOX 5 DC, has drawn renewed attention to the dangers lurking on overpasses across Northern Virginia.
