Safety Corridors

BY ASHLEY MANTON
STAFF WRITER
THE CAPITAL NEWS SERVICE

RICHMOND – A bill proposed by Del. Robert Hurt, R-Chatham, would raise the minimum fine for excessive speeding in highway safety corridors.

The bill, HB 2763, is currently under review by the House Committee for Courts of Justice after referral from the House Committee on Transportation. A minimum fine of
$500 would be assessed for anyone convicted of driving 20 or more miles per hour above the speed limit in highway safety corridors.

The General Assembly passed a bill in 2003 establishing the corridors, which can be found along three different stretches of two of Virginia's major North/South highways. A 15-mile stretch of Interstate 81 between mile markers 127 and 142 was designated a safety corridor in 2004, and two stretches of Interstate 95, one through Richmond and one through Prince William County, became safety corridors in early 2005.

Criteria for developing a highway safety corridor was established after the Virginia Department of Transportation assessed the crash rates and fatalities of 1,100 miles of interstate highway. Public hearings must be held at least 30 days prior to a corridor's establishment. The criteria required include the vehicle crash rate of the designated area, the types and amount of traffic on the road, and the quality of lighting, the frequencies of speeding violations and the topography of the area.

"Safety corridors on I-95 and I-81 were found to be areas with a lot of crashes, and crashes that caused injuries," said Jeffrey Caldwell, a spokesman for the Virginia Department of Transportation. "After going through the analyses and identifying any concerns raised during the public involvement period, we established these corridors to really concentrate our education efforts and enforcement with the Virginia State Police in making a tangible difference in the accidents in these areas."

Although current legislation increases the fines for traffic violations committed within the safety corridors, the fines associated with all traffic infractions that are not criminal offenses in highway safety corridors can be no more than $500. If House Bill 2763 is passed, the mandatory minimum fee for driving more than 20 miles per hour over the speed limit will be raised to $500, which will not be eligible for suspension.

According to VDOT, 946 people died and 76,023 were injured during crashes on Virginia highways in 2005. Since highway safety corridors were first enacted in 2004, VDOT has collected data surveying the frequencies of property damage, crashes and fatalities in the corridors, and there have been decreases in the annual totals of fatalities and injuries along the stretches of these designated areas.

"Since the highway safety corridors have been implemented, we have seen a significant reduction in those numbers of crashes," Caldwell said. "We've seen that the awareness of those highway safety corridors causes drivers to change their driving behaviors."

According to Stephen Read, analysis programs manager in the mobility management division of VDOT, the number of crashes throughout the I-95 safety corridors decreased in 2005 by 13 percent. Data for 2006 is still being analyzed.

There are talks of adding more safety corridors to the three that already exist.

Specific traffic violation fines will be determined by whether Hurt is able to push his bill through the House before the crossover period, when the Senate and House can only consider the other chamber's bills.

"We're using these three corridors as programs to see how it goes and monitor the processes," Caldwell said. "There are ongoing efforts still to identify other areas where this tool could be implemented to improve highway safety. That's something we're still investigating."

Although members of the Virginia State Police Department cannot speak about pending legislation, VSPD spokesperson Corinne Gellar said a VSPD motor squad enforces laws in the corridors by targeting traffic on certain days and times.

"Usually police will patrol during high volume traffic time or even sporadically throughout the day to remind the public that enforcement will be stepped up in the area to slow people down," Gellar said.