A 75-year-old Richmond man died after being struck by a vehicle in Shockoe Bottom on Friday morning, and police have since arrested and charged a North Chesterfield man in connection with the crash. The victim, identified as Harry Laverty, was hit near the intersection of East Main and 21st streets and later died at the hospital.
Officers with the Richmond Police Department were called to the scene just after 10:15 a.m. on Nov. 6, according to WRIC. Police identified the deceased victim as Harry Laverty, 75, of Richmond, as reported by WTVR. Earlier reporting from WWBT said police were still searching for the driver who struck Laverty.
That search did not last long. Police announced that 47-year-old John McSparren of North Chesterfield was arrested in connection with the crash and has since been charged with felony hit-and-run, per the WRIC report. Investigators collected video from nearby businesses and used other investigative techniques to identify the vehicle and driver, according to the same WTVR account.
A Grim Pattern on Richmond Streets
Laverty's death adds to a troubling tally for Richmond this year. The East Main Street crash was the 11th pedestrian crash in the city that WRIC had reported on in 2026, and including Friday's crash, six of those incidents were deadly and six were hit-and-runs, the station noted.
The numbers stretch back further than this year. Since the start of 2020, there have been 810 incidents in which cars struck one or more pedestrians on Richmond streets, according to a Virginia Mercury analysis of Virginia DMV data. The outlet also reported that 13 pedestrians died on Richmond roads in 2025 alone, the most of any locality in the state, and that Richmond was the only Virginia locality with at least 100,000 residents to rank in the top 10% across pedestrian crashes, deaths, and serious injuries during the period it examined.
Citywide Traffic Deaths Still Climbing
Axios has reported that Richmond averages 133 pedestrian-involved crashes every year, a figure that underscores how routine these collisions have become in the city. Citywide, traffic fatalities overall have also stayed stubbornly high: Richmond recorded 26 traffic deaths in 2022, the highest number logged on the city's Vision Zero dashboard, and Richmond Police reported 22 traffic deaths in 2025, according to WTVR's review of the data.
Those figures sit awkwardly against the city's own target. Richmond's Vision Zero goal is to bring traffic fatalities down to zero by 2030, per the same WTVR report, a benchmark that recent years' death counts suggest the city is still far from reaching.
The broader region tells a similar story. The Greater Richmond area had 1,399 crashes that killed at least one person between 2017 and 2025, ranking second among Virginia Department of Transportation districts statewide, according to WRIC's analysis of crash data.
No further details on Laverty's death or McSparren's case status have been released.
