No one should have to die for safety improvements to be made

In an interview, the husband of Erin Kaplan discusses life after losing his wife to a fatal car crash at Watson Road in 2017.

Editorial

Tony Steven Dane will be released from prison next year well ahead of Watson Road in Leesburg being improved.

Originally sentenced to 11 years and six months in state prison in 2018 for killing an Ashburn woman and severely injuring her four family members, Dane's sentence has been reduced by four years and correctional records show he is scheduled to be released in 2025. He is currently serving time at the Coffeewood Correctional Center in Culpeper County, Va.

"We don't know why his sentence was reduced. My lawyer is looking into it now," said Faran Kaplan, the husband of the driver who was killed.

Initially telling the judge how repentant and remorseful he was at sentencing, Dane has since filed multiple appeals trying to bypass personal accountability and blames everyone - his laywer, the prosecutor, a juror, investigators - rather than himself. On that fact alone it would seem time spent behind bars has failed Dane. Rather than use his time in prison to reflect on his actions and become a better person, he has consistently spent his time trying to get out quicker.

The fact that someone who took a life and injured four others would seek to lessen his sentence is not remorse or repentance. It's self-serving and immoral.

I've always wondered why drivers who are so flagrantly unsafe are never the ones who die by their own hand and actions. Instead, it always a completely innocent person - the other driver - who becomes the victim. Why is that?

What happened

On Sept. 8, 2017, Dane drove his "Dane’s Great American Hamburger" food truck, a modified 40-foot bus weighing approximately 22,000 pounds, from Front Royal through Middleburg enroute to a Briar Woods High School football game in Ashburn where he intended to sell food from his bus.

When he reached the “T” intersection at Watson Road and Evergreen Mills Road in Loudoun County, a notoriously dangerous intersection, his food truck ran the stop sign at the intersection and struck a vehicle occupied by Erin Kaplan, her three children, and her mother. It was undisputed that the cause of the crash was the failure of the food truck's brakes, but the dangerous intersection didn't help.

During an interview with police following the crash, Dane admitted that he personally had replaced a rear brake line on the food truck four or five days before the crash but had not driven the food truck since the day of the repair. Dane told police he noticed around Middleburg his brakes “felt spongy to him where they weren't acting appropriately, ” because they “weren't giving him the stopping power he needed, ” and he was “not able to slow down at [his] normal rate.” Dane admitted that he knew something “didn't feel right” with the food truck's brakes.

Dane did not pull over or otherwise seek remedial action despite ample opportunities; instead he proceeded to Leesburg, passing multiple gas stations and parking areas along the way. On Watson Road near the intersection with Evergreen Mills Road, Dane approached a stopped school bus. He “pressed the brakes several times,” but they did not work and “went to the floor” he told law enforcement.

Dane swerved around the school bus and continued unabated downhill through a stop sign and into the intersection. Unable to brake or negotiate a turn at the intersection, he struck Erin's 2014 Audi station wagon traveling northbound on Evergreen Mills Road.

Erin, who was driving, died at the scene. She was 39. The other family members were flown to Inova Fairfax Hospital.

"I remember that the police would not let me go to the scene. They told me to go to Inova Fairfax Hospital. I did and remember waiting there a long time. When the helicopters finally landed, there were only four instead of five. That's when I knew Erin did not make it," Faran Kaplan said.

In addition to the condition of the food truck's brake system, police identified several other hazardous deficiencies, including unbalanced weight distribution, poor tire condition, inoperable brake lights, minimal power steering fluid, significant rust and scaling on the underside of the bus, and wheels rusted to such a degree that they were difficult to remove.

The food truck had never been subjected to a state safety inspection in Virginia, and the only indication that it had ever been inspected was a Utah inspection sticker from 2011.

Dane was also driving without a license. Bus drivers are required to undergo additional training and pass additional tests than a regular driver to demonstrate their competence driving these vehicles in order to obtain a license. He was also driving without insurance.

After the crash, Dane belatedly applied for a driver’s license and car insurance, the Loudoun County prosecutor said at trial.

Dane was ultimately convicted of involuntary manslaughter and four misdemeanors, including operating a vehicle without a license, operating an uninsured vehicle, and reckless driving.

Dane was already facing legal troubles in Nevada, where he was a conservative political activist and ran a robo-call company. He was charged in 2016 with 11 felonies in Clark County, Nev., for allegedly pressuring a Republican legislator to change his vote for speaker of the state’s assembly.

Changing from repentance to trying to find a way out of prison

At the time of his sentencing citing his "devotion to Christianity and history of volunteer work," Dane and his attorney asked for a sentence less than 11 years, one that would "allow him to work and make some amends to the Kaplan family."

The judge refused and gave him the full sentence under state guidelines.

Dane then proceeded to file several appeals in Virginia’s courts challenging his conviction, arguing his lawyer failed to consult with a pathologist or medical expert to determine Kaplan’s cause of death. The convict who wanted to "make amends" to the family, was now suggesting Kaplan may have died another way rather than by his direct actions.

He also argued that his attorney should have consulted an expert on the mechanics of the food truck that he admittedly repaired himself days before the crash. He also argued he should have had more access to understanding the police investigators' training and competency to help his case. He also argued that one of the jurors should have been excused from the case because the juror's son saw television coverage of the school bus and its driver that Dane swerved to avoid hitting at the accident scene.

When Dane exhausted the Virginia appeals process, up to and including the Supreme Court of Virginia, he filed an appeal at the federal level. That appeal was denied in 2022.

New life, but old scars

Faran Kaplan now lives in Seattle with his three adult children. He moved there in 2021 during COVID. He is newly engaged with plans to get married in the next year or two. He still works for the same company he did on the day his wife died, stating the company has been "amazingly wonderful" to him and his family. He is going to be a grandfather soon.

"Erin and I met right after high school and were together for almost 23 years and married for 18." Kaplan said. "She was a homemaker and I worked a lot in order to provide for the family and allow her that time at home."

After her death, Kaplan said he became "instantly everything" to his children and had to take on aspects of parenting that his wife had formerly done. He feels he has grown as a father and the family is still very close and all in Seattle together. And Erin is there with them. Her ashes are in an urn at the entrance to Kaplan's home.

Though Kaplan has gone through the grieving process and largely put the death of his wife gently to rest and is fully embracing a new path in his life, there remains something he would like to see done to put closure on this chapter.

He would like to have is a memorial marker at the intersection of Watson Road and Evergreen Mills Road to honor his wife. "I reached out to [Board of Supervisors Chair] Phyllis Randall some time ago seeing if this could be done and I got a response back from her," Kaplan said. He would like to continue that discussion to see the possibility of making a marker a reality.

The Leesburg Patch has reached out to VDOT, Phyllis Randall and the Town of Leesburg to see what programs are in place that could accommodate this request.

"I would like to see Erin's memory and name memorialized," Kaplan said. He still comes back to Loudoun County a few times a year for work and said he feels her presence as soon as he lands at the airport. He believes it would be positive to have her name at the site that caused so much suffering.

Rethinking the way VDOT does business

A road safety audit was conducted in 2017 and 2018 to examine Evergreen Mills Road between Battlefield Parkway and Loudoun County Parkway and Watson Road between Evergreen Mills Road and Route 50 and made recommendations for improvements. It was determined that flashing beacons should be installed, pole mounted speed display signs erected, reflective markings on guardrails and wider edge line pavement markings, and variable message signs to alert drivers to speed and congestion issues.

In 2019, after 625 crashes in seven years, the Virginia Department of Transportation finally installed the sensors and flashing lights so drivers on Evergreen Mills Road are warned when a vehicle on Watson Road is approaching the stop sign at the intersection.

625 crashes.

Seven years.

One innocent person died. Several others injured.

Two Loudoun County sheriff’s deputies were injured in January 2024 after they were hit by a teen driver on Watson Road. The deputies, who were on motorcycles, were headed to the scene of another crash when the driver crossed the roadway's center line and hit them in the Gilberts Corner area.

In April 2024, a single vehicle crash involving a dump truck on Evergreen Mills Road near Watson Road also occurred.

"This road has been unsafe in this area for years due to flawed design, and yet VDOT has been able to avoid roadway defect suits. My family experienced a near fatal accident in 2015 involving a speeding dump truck on Evergreen Mills also near Watson Road. The driver lived but not without a lifetime of disability. What will be done?" said Dee Clingan.

Now, the County is acquiring nearby land to eliminate the blind intersection at Watson Road. Construction is expected to begin in 2026 to build a new four-way signalized intersection, several hundred feet away, with a far greater line of sight to try to prevent future tragedies. Currently, drivers on Evergreen Mills Road have limited visibility and stopping response time due to the road’s curves and large nearby rocks.

Construction is anticipated to be completed in 2028, 11 years after Erin Kaplan died.

If it takes 625 crashes, fatalities and 11 years to improve a treacherous intersection, VDOT and the County are doing something seriously wrong and need to completely overhaul and rethink their approach road safety, design and improvement.

Why should people have to die to be safe on the road?