A father of two young children who died in a hit-and-run crash in Reston, Virginia, Wednesday night was just about a block away from home when he was killed, his family says.
Andrew Willingham, 37, was coming home from his job as a construction manager about 7:30 p.m.
He had the green arrow to turn left into his neighborhood at Fairfax County Parkway and Walnut Branch Road when the driver of a Chevy SUV ran a red light and t-boned Willingham's Volkswagen Passat, authorities said.
Fairfax County police said the driver of the Chevy jumped out of the SUV and ran off.
We're making it easier for you to find stories that matter with our new newsletter — The 4Front. Sign up here and get news that is important for you to your inbox.
Willingham's family described him as a loving husband and a good family man.
"He was somebody who always had the right thing to say. He was always happy. He was always wanting to help and his heart was just so incredibly kind," Willingham's sister Erin Meleney said.
Meleney said the family is grateful to the people who rushed to help her brother in the last moments of his life.
Local
Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia local news, events and information
"Knowing he wasn't alone was just really really big for us," she said.
A GoFundMe page was created to help his wife and young sons, ages 2 and 4, with the loss the family’s financial provider.
"All of those characteristics that we love about Andrew, we'll be able to tell the boys that we see that in them and that he's always going to be a part of them and that he was just such a hands on dad," Meleney said.
Willingham is the ninth person to die in a non-pedestrian vehicle crash in Fairfax County this year.
Police described the hit-and-run driver as a Hispanic man between 5'6" and 6' tall, with a beard and shaggy hair. He was wearing a black short sleeve shirt over a white undershirt.
