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Tuesday morning, a sudden snowstorm in the Harrisonburg area caused a massive pileup on the northbound lanes of Interstate 81, near the 243-mile marker. The crash involved an estimated 20 vehicles and resulted in four injuries, according to Virginia State Police Sgt. Les Tyler.
The pileup happened at 8:30 AM when the storm left a snow layer that immediately stuck on the frozen road surface. According to Virginia Department of Transportation spokeswoman Sandy Myers, low visibility also contributed to the accident.
The pileup created a traffic jam in both directions and closed the northbound lanes until 12:30 PM.
It is very fortunate that this accident has only caused minor injuries. Car pileups can be extremely dangerous and result in chaotic devastation. When one vehicle after another crashes into the accident scene, which is usually the result of low visibility and dense high-speed traffic, each vehicle can be hit several times, from different angles. Motorists, trying to walk away from the scene, may be struck even when they have reached the shoulder. Leaking gasoline creates a fire and explosion hazard, and emergency crews may be unable to come close to helpless victims.
This accident is a reminder to all Virginia motorists to avoid high-traffic, high-speed motorways when the weather conditions are bad, with risks of snow, frost, or rain and low visibility.
AAA Mid-Atlantic recently released car accident statistics that showed a 2.9 percent nationwide decline in fatalities from 2009 to 2010 and a drop in Virginia from 758 to 740 (2.4 percent) over the same period.
The Virginia State Police keeps their own statistics, and they indicate that the trend in 2011 is not as favorable as in previous years. State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller declared that, as of December 22nd, the number of people killed in traffic accidents in 2011 had reached 731, which is compared to 713 at the same date in 2010.
Geller put these figures in perspective, pointing out that 2010 had been a record low year. She added that part of the increase in 2011 may be the result of several multiple-fatality crashes.
2011 saw a number of double-fatality accidents in Appomattox County and a bus crash in Caroline County that left 4 people dead.
Factors behind these fatal crashes include speeding, driver fatigue, distracted driving, and drunken driving.
“It compounds if they’re not wearing a seatbelt and they strike a guardrail or embankment and overturn, they end up being thrown out of the vehicle,” Geller added.
Several recent fatal accident victims are not included in the Virginia State Police statistics: James Haythe, who was hit by a vehicle in Lynchburg last week, and Justin Christopher Love, who was killed on Christmas Day when he lost control of his van on Virginia 1022.
When Nicholas Glover, 21, from Virginia Beach, saw the Sheriff’s Office deputy attempting to stop him for reckless driving, he fled. Moments later, Glover lost control of his 2000 Audi A4, ran off the opposite side of the road, and struck several trees.
His passenger Tyler K. Cassell, 17, also of Virginia Beach, was pronounced dead at the scene, while Glover was airlifted to VCU Medical Center in Richmond with serious injuries.
The accident occurred just before 7:30 PM on Saturday on Route 106. After attempting to stop the speeding car, the Charles City County deputy lost sight of the fleeing Audi. A motorist who had witnessed the crash alerted the police.
Police closed Route 106 for 6 hours after the accident. According to Sgt. Michelle Anaya, alcohol may have been a factor in the crash. Charges are pending while the investigation is ongoing.
For Virginia motorists who, in their overwhelming majority, use their vehicle responsibly, it is appalling to watch how inexperienced and irresponsible drivers make dangerous roads even more hazardous.
The Culpeper and Warrenton attorneys of Dulaney, Lauer & Thomas send their sincere condolences to the family and friends of Tyler C. Cassell who died in this tragic accident.
Last Friday, a 1985 Ford Ranger pickup truck hit a 1997 Honda Civic in the far left eastbound lane of Interstate 64. The accident occurred near mile marker 121 in Albemarle County for reasons that are still under investigation. The pickup truck rolled over several times, partially ejecting the driver Larry L. Taylor, aged 59, of Louisa, and completely ejecting his passenger, D.J. Taylor. The driver was pronounced dead at the scene, while emergency crews transported D.J. Taylor, a cousin of the driver, to UVA Hospital with serious injuries.
The driver of the Civic, Samuel Wells, 25, of Charlottesville, was not injured.
The crash occurred at 10:25 AM, and Virginia State Police Trooper J.C. Crabtree responded to the scene. The Virginia State Police Accident Reconstruction Team assisted with the investigation.
The attorneys of Dulaney, Lauer & Thomas convey their most sincere condolences to the family and friends of Larry L. Taylor, and wish D.J. Taylor a speedy and full recovery.
In tragic circumstances, this accident delivers another message that seat belts are lifesavers in rollover accidents. Being ejected or partially ejected usually results in extreme injuries.
Hybrid cars are quiet, which at first sight would be considered an advantage. Who wants noisy cars anyway? Yet, when hybrids run on the electric engine, they are so silent that pedestrians, who are used to relying on what they hear to determine approaching danger, are caught… and get hurt.
This is the conclusion of a new study by the Virginia-based Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI), an affiliate of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
The same study also concluded that hybrid cars, which generally share the same structure and size with their conventional engine counterparts, offer better protection to occupants from crash injuries. This is because, all other things being equal, hybrids weigh some 10 percent more than standard vehicles, and this extra mass gives occupants added protection in crashes with other vehicles.
A danger for pedestrians?
The HLDI analysts studied data collected over a seven-year period from 2004 to 2010 and over 25,000 bodily injury liability claims for both hybrid and conventional engine vehicles. The study concluded that pedestrians were 20 percent more likely to be injured by hybrid cars than by conventional cars. As Matt Moore, the author of the report, puts it, ”Pedestrians can’t hear them approaching, so they might step out into the roadway without checking first to see what’s coming.”
A recent study published in the American Journal of Public Health concludes that the risks of sustaining serious injuries in a car crash are significantly higher for women than for men. This is because several safety features do not take sex-specific disparities into account.
Head restraints do not reflect the fact that women's necks have a different size and shape than men's. Women also have a shorter stature, which means that they are likely to sustain more severe injuries to the lower limbs in certain types of accidents.
The study found that women who are wearing a seatbelt are 47 percent more at risk of a serious injury than men who are wearing a seatbelt are.
The researchers said that to address such disparities, the health authorities and lawmakers should put more pressure on automakers to adjust the vehicle's design and its safety features to the specific characteristics of women.
Protective safety features - like a vehicle's crashworthiness, head restraints, seat belts, or air bags - have significantly contributed to the decline of fatal and serious injuries in traffic accidents in the last ten years.
Wednesday was a peak frustration day for DC commuters, as well as thousands of I-95 users. For Fauquier and Culpeper County motorists, it was a day to stay close to home because the jamming quickly spread to all of the eastern highways leading to Washington.
When the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) allowed traffic to use the freshly paved lanes between Dale Boulevard and Prince William Parkway in the early morning hours, the pavement rapidly deteriorated. This condition forced VDOT to close the lane again at 5 a.m., leaving only one lane open to traffic.
Closer to 6 a.m., a crash on I-395 near Duke Street reduced the access to one lane during most of the 6 a.m. hour, while a car fire on the I-395 closed the northbound HOV lane near King Street. All this resulted in a totally jammed situation from Garrisonville to Alexandria - a distance of close to 40 miles!
Frustrated motorists started making risky U-turns on the I-395 at Edsall Road, which led to another crash on SB I-395, blocking three out of its four lanes.
Two more crashes happened near Falmouth on northbound I-95 before 8:00 a.m., adding to the misery.
Commutes of over three hours were reported by many drivers who usually experience a commute time of less than one hour.
The Virginia accident lawyers at Dulaney, Lauer & Thomas hope that no one was seriously injured in the number of accidents.
Over 25 police officers gathered in Roanoke County last Tuesday and watched a donated Kia Sorrento crash into a pedestrian dummy. The dummy was thrown 64 feet; the Kia left 66 feet of skid marks on the pavement.
The staged accident was part of a unique training partnership between law enforcement departments in Central and Southwest Virginia called the Blue Ridge Regional Crash Team. The program allows officers to receive state-of-the-art accident reconstruction training in exchange for the various participating departments' expertise and specialized equipment.
This gives any participating department the ability to draw expert advice from other departments to uncover the causes and circumstances of complicated accidents.
"You don't need a person in each department who knows it all," said Roanoke County police patrol division Chief Sgt. Tim Wyatt. "When you have a team like this, you can have 10 people who know a lot."
Officers, who are generally willing to help colleagues in nearby departments, welcome the Blue Ridge Regional Crash Team as a formal organization and network. The team makes their collaboration more efficient, gives all participants more expertise and better equipment, and produces studies that are valuable to all.
According to a recently released study by State Farm Insurance Company, an estimated 1.09 million traffic accidents involving deer occurred between July 1, 2010, and June 30th, 2011 - a 7 percent decline from the previous year.
Pennsylvania tops the list of states with 101,299 deer-motor vehicle collisions per year, followed by Michigan with 78,304.
If the deer-vehicle accident rate is expressed as the odds of hitting a deer over a 12-month period, the highest likelihood is in West Virginia (1 chance in 53) and the lowest in Hawaii (1 on 6,267). Virginia stands out among the high risk states with a rate of 1 per 110 and ranks on the 12th place. Neighboring Maryland ranks 13th with 1 per 119.5 while North Carolina ranks 16th with 1 per 139.4.
The study shows that deer-vehicle collisions are most likely in November, during the deer migration and mating season. November alone accounts for 18 percent of all accidents. During November, accidents involving deer are three times more likely to occur than during any time between from February to August.
October has the second highest risk of deer collisions.
If you have been injured in a Virginia auto accident, contact a Culpeper accident attorney today.
The Commonwealth of Virginia launched a traffic safety program across the state's schools to educate teenagers about the terrible consequences of unsafe driving.
Across the nation, car accidents are the top cause of accidental death in the 16-20 year age group. The Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles pointed out in a 2003 report that distraction was the leading cause of 15 percent of car crashes involving teenage drivers. This percentage has now certainly gone up substantially, with the widespread use of cell phones and internet enabled smart phones in cars.
Also, since 2000, nearly 800 teenage kids died in motor vehicle accidents in Virginia. In 2010, 61% of the teenagers killed in car crashes were not wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash. A great part of these fatalities could have been avoided just by buckling up.
These Virginia accident statistics prompted traffic safety officials in Virginia to start a new campaign. This new program, which launched in schools across the state on October 1st, educates teens about the importance of buckling up and driving safely.
Buckling up increases your teen's safety in a vehicle, but it doesn't make them invincible. If your teen has been injured by a negligent driver, contact a Virginia accident attorney today.
