Deer Crashes Through Windshield; Kills Va. Man | News

LOUDOUN COUNTY, Va. (WUSA) -- A deer crashed through a windshield and killed 26-year old Rodolfo Diamantio Ruiz Villatoro, 26 of Arlington Saturday night.   He was sitting in the passenger seat.   The impact of the huge animal also injured the driver and a man in the backseat, according to the driver, 40-year-old Juan Salgado who shared his home with Villatoro. 

"It was so painful.  I kept holding my nose and I couldn't stop the bleeding," Salgado sobbed as he recounted the horrifying incident.   "It was like an explosion."

He never saw the deer coming and didn't realize what had happened until he mopped the blood from his own face and saw Rodolfo, his best friend and wife's cousin motionless.  Between the two front seats of the Nissan Xterra SUV they were in was the deer, also still.

Villatoro's grief stricken mother said about her son, "He was such a good boy.  I'm filled with pain at his loss."

The accident happened on Route 9 just west of Route 704, about ten miles west of Leesburg.  The three men were headed to the Charlestown Race Track.   Salgado is a bus driver for Alexandria DASH and says he was traveling only 40 miles per hour, ten miles less than the posted speed limit.  

The Loudoun Sheriff's Department says a Toyota Prius going eastbound hit the deer, sending hit airborne into the Xterra's windshield.   There was no damage to the hood or front of the SUV, but the roof looked like a bomb hit it.

The Sheriff's Department says the driver of the Prius was  Richard Swingle, 42, of New York and that he "struck a deer that was attempting to cross the roadway."  

The three other men involved in the accident only had minor injuries, police said. 

"Route 9 was closed and traffic was diverted for approximately one hour as members of the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office Crash Reconstruction Unit investigated the crash," police said.