Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 29, 1993 TAG: 9305290157
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"We are trying to make sure people know to buckle up, obey the speed limit and not drink and drive," said Virginia Secretary of Public Safety O. Randolph Rollins. "We know that it makes a difference."
It's part of Operation CARE, the Combined Accident Reduction Effort across the state and along the East Coast.
In Virginia, 75 percent of state troopers are patrolling this weekend. Some are working under a federally financed safety program, freed from all duties other than looking for drunken drivers, said state police spokeswoman Lucy Caldwell.
Rollins said 881 people died on Virginia highways in 1982. In 1992, despite an increase in cars and the miles they drive, the number was 839. Each year, about half the traffic deaths are alcohol-related, police said.
In a rest stop off Interstate 95 near Dale City, state police from New York to North Carolina gathered Thursday to kick off Operation CARE. They watched a demonstration of a rollover simulator, a device used to show what happens to lifelike dummies during automobile rollovers. Dummies flew from the automobile during the demonstration.
The device simulates a variety of speeds and situations, said Pennsylvania State Police Maj. William J. Regan. The demonstrations have no scientific application, but are designed to encourage public safety, especially the use of safety belts.
To ease traffic congestion heading to the beaches, the Virginia Department of Transportation has urged people headed to the Outer Banks to use the year-old Monitor-Merrimac tunnel in Newport News instead of the often-congested Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel.
Transportation Department spokesman Bill Cannell said he expected the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel to be the primary trouble spot over the holiday weekend. Lane reduction, going from a six-lane highway to a four-lane tunnel, creates bottlenecks that can slow or stop traffic for 30 minutes to more than an hour.
by CNB