ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 16, 1997 TAG: 9703170078
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MICHELLE CROUCH THE ASSOCIATED PRESS RICHMOND
The interstate stretching through Virginia is packed with gunrunners, dope dealers and angry drivers.
Greg Hawkins has been a state trooper long enough to know the danger that awaits any time he works the night shift on Interstate 95. It still sends a shiver of fear down his back.
Hawkins knows the freeway that links Maine and Miami has too many gunrunners, dope dealers and motorists with chips on their shoulders and guns within easy reach.
``Night is always a scary time to have to work I-95,'' the Virginia state trooper said. ``There are always drugs going up and down the interstate. When they have drugs, they're more likely to have guns. And they're going to protect their drugs.''
State troopers such as Hawkins have become the front-line soldiers in a war against the crime and violence that plagues the East Coast's major north-south thoroughfare. While highway violence has become a problem on interstates across the country, I-95 is one of the worst.
``It's more violent than most highways because it's a route that traditionally transports more weapons and drugs,'' said Lou Mizell, a Washington-based security consultant.
And as one of the country's most traveled highways, I-95 is a conduit among Miami, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Boston and New York - some of the country's biggest drug markets.
``It's a drug corridor because it goes from one of the major drug infiltration points in the country - Florida - up to the highest density parts of population,'' said Ted Deeds, spokesman for the Law Alliance Enforcement of America.
A report released last week indicates that the interstate is also a weapons corridor. Statistics from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms show that the majority of the guns used to commit crimes in New York City came up the I-95 pipeline from Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.
``These gunrunners have turned Interstate 95 into the firearm freeway,'' U.S. Rep. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said when he and another member of congress released the report.
The highway is also a hotbed for fleeing bank robbers, murderers and other criminals taking advantage of the quickest route out of the state or area.
With so many criminals on the highway, even routine traffic stops can be dangerous for police because criminals who don't know why they're being stopped get defensive, Mizell said.
In Trenton, N.J., state trooper Sean O'Brien stopped a car Aug. 27 because it had a defective brake light. The driver, who police later learned was carrying 60 pounds of marijuana and two loaded nine-millimeter handguns, tried to flee.
O'Brien held onto the car and was dragged 100 yards before he stopped the driver by firing a few rounds from his gun. The driver was charged with aggravated assault, and O'Brien was left with bruises and cuts on his hands, legs and face.
A similar incident took place in 1995 when South Carolina trooper Jeff Nettles chased four men in Florence who were driving a stolen car on I-95. The men fired at Nettles, who was saved by his bulletproof vest.
It's not just police who are affected by I-95's criminal element. In every state, motorists have become the victims of criminals taking advantage of the abundance of easy targets using the highway daily.
``There are roving bands of predatory criminals out there and they will bump you to get you to pull over so they can rob you,'' said Morton Feldman, executive vice president of the National Association of Chiefs of Police. ``They see it as a good place to commit a crime because there's an easy getaway and you have easy people out there.''
Bobby Lee Durham Sr. of Dover, Pa., was robbed, then shot to death Dec. 18 when he and his family stopped to use the bathroom at an I-95 rest stop in Dale City, Va. Three teen-agers have been charged in the shooting, police said.
It was in Virginia that Sherry Tew Mansur, 34, was picked up at an I-95 truck stop. Her strangled body was found in a ditch in North Carolina in February 1995. Trucker Sean Patrick Goble, 20, of Asheboro, N.C., pleaded guilty to the killing last year.
Some of the most publicized episodes on I-95, however, have been the result of ill tempers, deadly weapons and something as simple as a lane change.
On I-95 near Quantico, a 3-year-old girl was critically injured in a three-vehicle crash Nov. 20 after her father engaged in a driving duel in rush-hour traffic.
Near Boston, Donald Graham saw Michael Blodgett flash his high beams at another car on I-95, and he didn't like it. So he chased Blodgett's car, got him to pull over, then shot Blodgett with a crossbow. Within six hours, Blodgett had bled to death.
``On 95, there is a large and growing number of long-distance commuters who are very stressed out, their time is precious, so these factors may contribute to the violence,'' said Richard Retting, a spokesman for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
Though no statistics specifically on I-95 are available, a study sponsored by the American Automobile Association late last year indicated that violent incidents on major U.S. highways as a whole increased 51 percent from 1990 through 1995.
Such statistics have persuaded many states to bolster their highway crimefighting efforts.
In Florida, where 10 tourists were slain in less than a year in 1995, police say the efforts have paid off.
The Florida Highway Patrol put together a crime squad to focus on highway crime, said spokesman Ernesto Duarte.
``We put out bulletins with the latest information on stolen vehicles, and we patrol I-95 constantly, in marked and unmarked cars,'' he said. The state has had no serious incidents in about a year, Duarte said.
Other states are considering similar measures, but, until they are in place, sSome people say they plan on staying off I-95.
Retting, who lives in Fairfax, steers people away from the interstate.
``My mother [was] coming up from South Carolina and I urged her not to take I-95,'' he said. ``I gave her directions on Route 123, which is parallel to 95. It's a sleepy back road, and it takes longer, but it's worth it.''
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