A car crashed into a home near West 32nd Street and Llewellyn Avenue in Norfolk, injuring a woman and a child and setting off a gas leak that fire crews scrambled to contain before it could become something far worse. Norfolk Police say officers responding to the scene found a vehicle had struck the residence, leaving a 30-year-old Portsmouth woman and one of two children in the car hurt.
According to 13News Now, police were called to the area of West 32nd Street and Llewellyn Avenue, where they discovered the car had plowed into the house. The driver was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Two children were riding in the vehicle at the time of the crash, and one of them was treated for a minor injury, the outlet reports.
Gas Leak Prompted Quick Response
The impact caused a gas leak at the home, a hazard that required immediate action before anyone could safely assess the damage. Norfolk Fire-Rescue crews shut off the gas supply before Virginia Natural Gas technicians arrived on scene, per the same report. Utility safety guidance explains why that sequence matters: when a collision damages a gas meter or service line, protocol calls for evacuating the area, avoiding any ignition sources like cellphones or light switches, and alerting both 911 and the utility's emergency line so crews can isolate the break, according to Virginia Natural Gas.
The home sustained only minor damage in the crash, and nobody inside the residence was injured or displaced, the station's report notes. That outcome stands in contrast to the structural damage some Norfolk crashes have caused in the past, underscoring how close this incident came to a worse result for the household.
Driver Faces Reckless Driving Summons
Norfolk Police issued the driver a summons for reckless driving and failure to maintain control, according to the same account. In Virginia, failing to maintain control of a vehicle is prosecuted under Code § 46.2-853 as reckless driving, a Class 1 misdemeanor that can carry up to 12 months in jail, a fine as high as $2,500, a license suspension of up to six months, and six demerit points, according to the Andrew Flusche Law Firm.
That exposure is not necessarily the final word, however. Virginia courts and Commonwealth's attorneys have statutory discretion under Code § 46.2-869 to reduce such charges to improper driving when a driver's fault is judged to be slight, a non-criminal infraction capped at a $500 fine with no jail time or criminal record attached, per the Castellano Law Firm. The exact cause of the crash, and whether the driver's court date will result in a reduced charge, remain open questions.
Part Of A Broader Pattern On Norfolk Streets
Norfolk has consistently ranked among the top ten Virginia localities for total motor vehicle crashes, according to state DMV data cited by 13News Now. The city has folded corridors like Llewellyn Avenue into its Vision Zero planning framework, which targets the elimination of traffic deaths and serious injuries, according to the City of Norfolk. Statewide, the DMV recorded 25,705 speed-related crashes in 2024 alone, nearly a fifth of all collisions in the commonwealth that year, resulting in 410 deaths.
Even so, preliminary state data pointed to progress heading into this year, with statewide traffic fatalities falling by roughly 15 percent in 2025 compared to 2024. This crash also echoes a recent pattern of single-vehicle loss-of-control incidents disrupting Norfolk neighborhoods; a Chesapeake man died earlier this month after a single-vehicle crash near Campostella Road and Parkside Drive.
