A recent crash in Nokesville has claimed another life on Prince William County’s rural roads, marking the fourth high-speed fatality in the Brentsville District in just two years.
On Saturday, March 14, a 2010 Chevrolet Corvette struck a tree after running off the road at high speed.
Prince William County police were called at 12:04 p.m. to the intersection of Parkgate Drive and Old Church Road in Nokesville for reports of the crash.
Investigators determined that the driver was traveling north on Parkgate Drive, just beyond Old Church Road, at a high rate of speed when the vehicle left the roadway and collided with a tree. Both occupants were pronounced deceased at the scene.
The driver was identified as Kristopher McCandless, 61, of Nokesville. The passenger was Jessica Preast, 45, of Charleston, West Virginia.
The incident prompted Brentsville District Supervisor Tom Gordy to issue a pointed safety warning during the Prince William Board of County Supervisors meeting on March 17, 2026.
Gordy described the latest fatality as “absolutely unnecessary,” emphasizing the hazardous conditions that characterize many rural roadways in his district. “These roads are not built for high speed,” he told fellow supervisors and attendees. “They have no shoulders. They are bumpy. They’re curvy. A lot of driveways on them. Sometimes they’re deer. Sometimes they’re goats. You never know what you’re going to confront on some of these roads.”
He urged drivers to exercise caution, particularly those tempted to treat rural routes as opportunities for high-speed joyriding. “Just encourage people to drive safely on rural roads… and drive the speed limit,” Gordy said, directing his message especially to residents and visitors who use the county’s winding, shoulder-less backroads.
The warning arrives amid ongoing tension between rapid county growth and the preservation of rural quality of life in western Prince William, particularly in the Brentsville District. Gordy tied the road-safety concerns to broader development pressures, criticizing the county’s data-center overlay policy for its unintended economic consequences on local businesses.
He highlighted the recent sale of an industrial park at the corner of Limestone and Wellington roads to data-center interests. The transaction is displacing several established operations, including a home-audio company, an indoor swim-training facility, banks, and child-development programs. “We don’t know where they’re going to go,” Gordy said. “And so, just once again, pound the table. It’s time for the data center overlay to go away. This is killing our businesses.”
Gordy’s remarks reflect a recurring theme at recent board meetings: the challenge of balancing explosive revenue from data-center development with the protection of rural character, small businesses, and resident safety. While data centers have delivered substantial tax income—public commenters at the same meeting noted $166 million in fiscal year 2024 revenue, a 50% year-over-year increase—critics argue that such growth often comes at the expense of long-standing local enterprises and the rural way of life in areas like Nokesville and surrounding Brentsville.
The board, led by Chair At-large Deshundra Jefferson, heard Gordy’s comments during the supervisors’ round of updates near the end of the afternoon session. Other supervisors focused on community events, transportation grants, youth achievements, and budget priorities, but Gordy’s statement stood out for its direct appeal to driver behavior and its linkage of infrastructure limitations to development policy.
No immediate action was proposed on the data-center overlay or rural road improvements during the March 17 meeting. However, Gordy’s safety plea underscores persistent resident concerns about high-speed crashes on narrow, unshouldered county roads that lack modern safety features.
