A 76-year-old motorcyclist has died after a car crossed into his path on Centerville Road in James City County, and the driver now faces a reckless driving charge. Jon W. Persons was riding in the 6000 block of Centerville Road around 1:43 p.m. Wednesday when an oncoming car crossed in front of him as he turned, striking his motorcycle.
Persons was taken to a local hospital, where he died of his injuries, according to the James City County Police Department, as reported by WTKR. The driver of the car, 20-year-old Dev'ion N. Williams, was charged with reckless driving, police said. WAVY.com reported that the crash occurred at the intersection of Centerville Road and Jolly Pond Road and that it will continue providing updates as more information becomes available.
A Long-Awaited Signal Project at the Intersection
The crash happened at a stretch of road that had drawn attention from local officials well before Wednesday. James City County had been working with the Virginia Department of Transportation on installing a traffic signal at the Centerville Road and Jolly Pond Road intersection since 2022, according to the county's planning director, Paul Holt, in comments reported by the station's crosstown outlet, the Daily Press. The $975,000 project was funded through VDOT's revenue sharing program, with local funds matched 1:1 by the state.
Holt had described the intersection as carrying heavy traffic from multiple directions. “This intersection is currently unsignalized and has high volumes of traffic coming from Jolly Pond Road and traffic flowing north and south on Centerville Road,” he said, per the Daily Press. As of July, crews were completing installation of the signal, which was expected to become operational the following week.
A Painful History at the Same Crossing
Wednesday's crash is not the first fatal collision near this stretch of road. In July 2008, a crash off Centerville Road near Jolly Pond Road killed two teenagers, 18-year-old Thomas Bernard Karafa and 16-year-old Robert Paul McCormack, according to a report at the time from the Virginian-Pilot. That crash involved a 2001 Volvo that ran off the right side of the road and struck an embankment, a very different set of circumstances from Wednesday's collision between a motorcycle and a car.
No further case update, including any court disposition for the reckless driving charge against Williams, has been reported. The circumstances surrounding Wednesday's crash, including how the new traffic signal project factored into conditions at the intersection, have not been addressed in available reporting.
