ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, September 26, 1996 TAG: 9609260058
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: What's on your mind?
SOURCE: RAY REED
Q: Why does it take so long to clear accident scenes on Interstate 81? A wreck near Radford last week had a 3-mile backup, and a truck crash in Botetourt County on Sunday caused a three-hour wait. Couldn't police have routed traffic along the lanes that weren't blocked by wreckage? Do they review these events afterward with the aim of improving traffic flow in future incidents?
D.S., Roanoke; R.D., Radford
A: Both of these wrecks occurred in heavy traffic, so the backups were unusually long.
Capt. Charles Compton Jr., commander of the Salem division of the state police, said he and other supervisors reviewed the Sunday wreck in Botetourt County and evaluated the decisions made by officers at the scene.
Those troopers made the right calls, Compton said.
The Botetourt wreck on Sunday involved a double-trailer truck carrying a hazardous material. All traffic had to be stopped while emergency personnel checked for a leak.
Once they determined the hazardous package wasn't leaking, the troopers allowed traffic to pass until wreckers arrived to remove the truck. The towing job required all traffic to stop again.
The only other choice available to the troopers would have been to leave the wrecked truck beside the road until midnight, when traffic was lighter, Compton said.
Because the truck was close to the road and contained hazardous material, the officers decided to remove it as soon as possible. "I certainly feel it was the right call under the situation," Compton said.
The Radford-area wreck involved a fatality and four injuries, which brought more rescue personnel to the scene than usual.
Police priorities in the situation were, in this order: safeguard the scene, assist and treat the injured, and then get traffic moving.
Compton said the Radford wreck was reported at 5:20 p.m. and that traffic was being routed past the scene at 5:53. He knew that because one of the rescue vehicles was involved in a minor accident during the movement.
Even with one lane open at a wreck scene, traffic moves past at a crawl. After all that waiting, some folks just have to get a look at the carnage.
Trouble is, if one driver in 10 takes time to rubberneck, everyone else waits that much longer.
Do police realize how hard it is for us to wait at one of these scenes?
Yes, they do. They know about the discomfort of needing to go to the bathroom, about trying to catch a plane or keep a business appointment, about needing to get a family member to the hospital.
They know about having to investigate secondary crashes - the ones that occur when a less-than-alert driver comes up on stopped traffic.
Police officers don't like this any more than the rest of us.
Why can't wrecks just be pushed off the road and investigated on the shoulder?
Sometimes they can, and that may start happening more often. Troopers' cruisers in the Salem region recently have been equipped with push bumpers that allow them to shove wrecked cars off the road.
Compton said that when I-81 is widened to six or eight lanes - a project that's a long way down the road - conditions will improve. "Right now, we have an interstate that's overly saturated," he said.
Got a question about something that might affect other people, too? Something you've come across and wondered about? Call us at 981-3118. Or, e-mail RayR@Roanoke.Infi.Net. Maybe we can find the answer.
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