Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, August 15, 1995 TAG: 9508150049
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY REED
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
B.M., Daleville; D.H., Vinton
A: Expect the speed limit signs to change this week, with one exception.
A 45-mph limit will continue in effect for the 0.4 mile of 220 approaching the traffic light at U.S. 460 in Bonsack.
State police have told the Virginia Department of Transportation the lower limit is needed.
Work recently was completed on widening the last two miles of Alternate 220 closest to Bonsack, where the work-zone limit was 45 mph.
Raising the speed limit to 55 for all but the 0.4 mile intersection approach was approved last week by the transportation commissioner.
Brake-light effect
Q: Has the number of rear-end collisions gone down nationally since the upper rear brake light became mandatory? By now there should be some figures on its effectiveness. S.W., Roanoke
A: There was a reduction of about 5 percent in rear-end collisions, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety reports.
Safety advocates had hoped for better results.
Tests in 1980 showed more than 50 percent reductions in rear-impact collisions on vehicles with center high-mounted brake lights.
The insurance researchers found that once the lights were installed on all vehicles, the actual reduction was somewhere between 3 percent and 7 percent.
They said the test results from 1980 may have been affected by the novelty of the lights, which no one had seen before.
Vans and utility vehicles have hurt the results, too.
"Early on, we thought a great benefit was the see-through effect," said Brian O'Neill, spokesman for the insurance institute.
"Drivers could see through cars ahead of them in commuting traffic. That's getting to be impossible today with the proliferation of minivans and utility vehicles that you can't see through."
Not our Blackwater
Q: The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported Aug. 4 that more than 200 miles of rivers in Virginia were unfit for swimming, and among them was the Blackwater River in Franklin. Does this affect Smith Mountain Lake? W.L., Vinton
A: It's not our Blackwater River, and not our Franklin either.
The Blackwater of Franklin County that forms an arm of Smith Mountain Lake is considered clean.
By a fairly remarkable coincidence, the city of Franklin - about 50 miles west of Norfolk and just a few miles from the North Carolina border - has a Blackwater River, too.
This eastern Blackwater River flows through some heavily industrialized areas on its way to eventually joining the Chowan River in North Carolina.
Except for the South River in Augusta County, none of the rivers cited as unfit by the Department of Environmental Quality is in Western Virginia.
Got a question about something that might affect other people, too? Something you've come across and wondered about? Give us a call at 981-3118. Maybe we can find the answer.
by CNB