THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, January 30, 1995 TAG: 9501300052
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: Hot Pursuit - Or Not?
SOURCE: BY JON FRANK, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Long : 139 lines
Davis Bradley was sitting at a red light in his 1994 Saab at Duke Street and Brambleton Avenue. He was about to witness the last moments in the lives of William L. Rosbe and Terrie G. Timms.
It was about 11:30 p.m. Jan. 21.
Around him on that cold night was a quiet, urban scene of lonely street lights and almost no traffic. At his left, across Brambleton and in the right-hand lane of Duke Street, were two officers in a Norfolk police car. And coming slowly down Duke on his right was a 1983 BMW with Rosbe and Timms inside.
Suddenly, the intersection exploded with auto parts. A van hurtling down Brambleton from behind Bradley, and into the intersection, had crashed into Rosbe's car.
Both occupants - Rosbe, 50, a Richmond lawyer, and Timms, 40, of Virginia Beach - were killed instantly.
The van's driver was Arnold O. Peterson of Virginia Beach. Police say he was drunk and driving recklessly. They had been pursuing him for 15 miles and as many minutes, all the way from the Lynnhaven section of Virginia Beach.
But for Rosbe and Timms, unaware that the long chase had swung off Interstate 264 and onto Brambleton, the end was sudden.
``There was debris everywhere,'' recalled Bradley this week. ``It happened so fast that I'm sure they never knew what hit them.''
Days later, the frightening image of the BMW turning over after impact continues to haunt Bradley, a vice president at Williamsburg Community Hospital. It is a memory, he says, that is likely to stay with him forever.
But something else Bradley saw that night has stayed in his mind - the Norfolk police car. Bradley remembers that its emergency lights were off and its headlights were on. No signal was given that danger was approaching.
Bradley wonders why the two police officers in the car did not try to stop Rosbe's car from entering the intersection.
Larry Hill, a spokesman for the Police Department, said the officers did not have time to warn Rosbe, but they turned on their warning lights and stopped two cars on their side of Duke from entering the intersection.
Bradley said the officers had enough time to do something to block the intersection with their car. The police cruiser, he says, sat at the intersection for the entire red-light sequence.
``It's not just like they rolled up,'' Bradley said. ``They were sitting there for the entire duration of the red light. . . . I really believe that this accident could have been prevented.''
Hill said the city's police-pursuit policy forbids the use of cars as roadblocks. In 1980, he recalled, an officer in a patrol car that blocked a street during a chase was killed when a speeding car hit his side of the cruiser.
Also, Hill said, the officers said Rosbe's car had a green light and never came to a stop, making it that much harder for anyone to warn him.
The two officers knew the chase pursuit was close. They had heard the van had crossed Monticello Avenue, three blocks away.
But, Hill said, the two officers told him they were under the impression that Norfolk police cars were right behind Peterson, not state police cars. They were looking for the revolving bar lights of city cars.
When they did spot the van, they turned on their own warning lights, and stopped two cars from entering the intersection. Then they saw Rosbe's car coming down the other side of Duke; it was too late to do anything.
``The patrolmen in that car did not know if they had time to cross Brambleton to stop traffic,'' said Hill. ``They pulled ahead a little bit and looked down Brambleton. By the time they looked up and saw Rosbe's car coming, it was a split second.''
Lt. Col. Basil Belsches of the Virginia State Police said that if the officers had been at the intersection long enough they could have blocked the intersection from cross traffic.
``That is the first that I had heard that a Norfolk policeman was at the intersection,'' Belsches said. ``If he was aware of the chase he possibly could have blocked it off.''
The question of why the intersection was not blocked is just one of several that have lingered since last Saturday's double-fatality accident.
Why did the police pursue Peterson once he left Interstate 264 to go into the streets of downtown Norfolk?
``Probably because this guy was a threat,'' said Virginia Beach police spokesman Lou Thurston. ``We had to get him stopped.''
Thurston said the Virginia State Police videotaped the pursuit. The videotape is not available to the public because it is evidence that will be used in Peterson's trial.
``If you could see the tape I think you would be aghast at what you saw,'' Thurston said. ``This guy was driving a weapon. If someone was shooting a gun on (the highway) . . . we would have been expected to do something. How much more of a weapon do you want than a 2-ton van driving down the road at 80 miles per hour?''
Thurston said police also thought the van might have been stolen and was being used as part of a robbery spree that night in Portsmouth.
Belsches said two state trooper cars that led the pursuit ``were requested to assist Virginia Beach and were in an assist mode. We were trying to catch him. I'm not sure if we were trying to keep up or pursue. Our troopers were about one-half block or more behind at the time of the collision. We were sticking with him but not pushing him.''
Why wasn't a helicopter used, instead of police cars, to track Peterson through Norfolk?
Thurston said the Virginia Beach police helicopter had been summoned. It was at a heliport in the Pungo section of Virginia Beach. ``It was launched but did not arrive on the scene until after the crash,'' he said.
Virginia State Police spokeswoman Tammy Van Dame said the state police do not have a helicopter in Hampton Roads. The closest is in Richmond.
Why were the exits on Interstate 264 not blocked off so Peterson would not exit the freeway and enter the more dangerous streets of Norfolk?
Blocking exits on interstates is a viable technique, Belsches said, but it is one that requires a lot of manpower and the right conditions. It won't work, for instance, during periods of heavy traffic.
Toll plazas can also be closed to prevent movement to, from and along freeways, Belsches said.
Lou Thurston of Virginia Beach said police tried to close the expressway toll plaza.
``Unfortunately, the time frame was not there to have the toll plaza closed down,'' he said.
Why weren't all of the traffic lights in Norfolk put on red as an emergency measure, which might have kept traffic from entering intersections?
At that time of night, Hill said, lights can be fixed only by workers going from light to light. The pursuit in downtown Norfolk lasted less than two minutes.
Why didn't the Norfolk police, who are more familiar with the city's streets, take over the pursuit?
``As far as I know, they were not in a position to do that at the time,'' said Belsches.
Norfolk's Larry Hill said three Norfolk police cars were following the state troopers, and other Norfolk police were positioning themselves ahead to assist.
Part of the problem, Hill said, was that some city police cars could not communicate with the state police cars directly because the agencies use different radio frequencies. Radio signals were relayed by dispatchers.
Belsches said there is a radio system - called the Statewide Interagency Radio System - that can communicate to all cars. But some of the cars in the Jan. 21 pursuit did not have the system. It is not cost-effective for all city police cars to have it, Hill said. MEMO: Main Story on page A1 and related stories on page A7.
KEYWORDS: HIGH SPEED CHASE ACCIDENT TRAFFIC FATALITY by CNB