Virginia State Police have identified the safety patrol worker killed on westbound I-64 in Newport News last month as Clayton Fitchett, a 60-year-old Hampton man who spent 18 years helping stranded drivers on the state's interstates before he was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver. Investigators say he was widening a safety zone around an earlier crash when an uninvolved car hit him and kept going.
State police announced the identification on Oct. 10, nearly three weeks after the crash, saying they had located and notified Fitchett's next of kin before releasing his name, according to The Virginian-Pilot. Fitchett, a Hampton native and Kecoughtan High School graduate, had worked for 18 years as a Safety Service Patrol professional for VDOT contractor AECOM, according to a tribute shared on Instagram
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A Routine Call Turns Deadly in Minutes
The chain of events began around 3:12 a.m. on Sept. 19, when Virginia State Police responded to a report of a sleeping motorist on westbound I-64 near the Jefferson Avenue overpass in Newport News, as reported by WVEC-TV. The responding trooper had already stepped out of his cruiser when a Kia Sorento driven by 44-year-old Newport News resident Wanagi Gordon slammed into the back of the parked police vehicle. The trooper was not hurt, and police later charged Gordon with reckless driving and driving on a suspended license.
Less than 10 minutes after that first collision, Fitchett was struck while working on foot to extend the safety perimeter around the crash site, according to video and reporting from journalist Dave Statter. The vehicle that hit him, an orange Dodge Charger with no connection to the original crash, fled the scene, per police. State police are still searching for the driver and are asking anyone with information to call 804-750-8788.
Fleeing Driver Faces Felony Exposure
Virginia law treats leaving the scene of a fatal crash as a serious felony. Under Virginia Code § 46.2-894, leaving the scene of a crash involving injury or death is a Class 5 felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $2,500, according to a legal overview from Medvin Law. The statute imposes a mandatory duty on drivers to stop, render aid, and identify themselves after a crash, regardless of fault.
Separately, the law that governs how drivers must behave near stopped emergency and service vehicles has its own penalty structure. Under Virginia Code § 46.2-861.1, drivers approaching stationary emergency or service vehicles displaying flashing lights must change lanes or slow down, with failure to do so penalized as Class 1 misdemeanor reckless driving. Virginia has expanded its Move Over law over the years specifically to protect highway assistance personnel and maintenance crews working on active interstates, not just police and tow trucks.
A Recurring Danger for Highway Safety Crews
Fitchett's death marks at least the third fatality involving a VDOT Safety Service Patrol worker in Virginia over a three-year span between 2023 and 2026, per the CivicViewPro account from Statter. The patrol program he worked for is sprawling: VDOT's statewide Safety Service Patrol operates across 50 routes covering more than 1,100 miles of Virginia interstates with a fleet of roughly 190 service trucks, according to Commonwealth Transportation Board documentation. Those crews handle debris removal, motorist assistance, and scene management, often standing in active travel lanes to do it.
The danger isn't unique to Virginia. An average of 24 emergency responders and roadside assistance personnel are struck and killed by passing vehicles annually across the United States, according to AAA traffic safety figures. A more recent study from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety found that 36% of drivers fail to slow down or move over when passing roadside emergency or service incidents, a compliance gap researchers at AAA Michigan attribute partly to distraction and confusion over what the Move Over rules actually require.
For now, the search continues for the driver of the orange Dodge Charger. Virginia State Police have not released additional details about the vehicle or suspect, and the investigation remains open nearly a month after Fitchett was killed doing the job he'd done for almost two decades.
