THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, March 18, 1995 TAG: 9503170056
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Larry Bonko
LENGTH: Medium: 98 lines
IT'S THE AFTERNOON rush hour on bustling Shore Drive in Virginia Beach. Who is that man with the microphone standing on the side of the road, shouting these words to drivers who zip past him:
``You're not supposed to be turning right in this lane!''
Now it's the morning drive. Here's that man with the microphone again, riding on a great big school bus, asking the driver what she thinks of reckless motorists who pass the bus when it is letting kids off.
Now it's the middle of the afternoon. The man with the microphone is aboard an ambulance hurrying to the scene of an automobile accident. He is interviewing the driver-paramedic on the subject of motorists who refuse to pull over even after they hear the siren's wail and see red lights flashing.
The man with the microphone is WAVY reporter Andy Fox. In league with Channel 10 cameraman Rich Walter, he seeks out the careless, indifferent, dangerous, thoughtless and just plain stupid drivers who are a menace to all of us good drivers.
Fox, Walter and WAVY news director Gary Stokes are on a crusade for safer streets and high-ways. It's in-your-face, Channel 10-on-your-side style TV journalism.
And, hey, it's good for ratings.
Back to the school bus driver.
``They're breaking the law. Every one of them,'' the woman tells Fox as she watches one motorist after another ignore the bright red ``STOP'' sign anchored to the side of her bus.
Back to the paramedic in the ambulance.
``People are out here driving with the windows rolled up, the stereo blaring. They don't hear me until I get right up on their back bumper.''
WAVY takes pictures of those oblivious drivers and puts them on TV once a week on Thursday evening at 5:30 in a segment called ``Road Rebels.'' It's a parade of drivers who run red lights, park illegally in spaces reserved for the handicapped, don't yield when they are supposed to and tear across the parking lots of shopping center as if they are the backstretch at Daytona.
When ``Road Rebels'' ends, viewers are invited to call with their traffic headaches.
The complaints reach in the hundreds, said Fox. Gripes embrace dangerous intersections and crumbling sidewalks as well as thoughtless drivers.
It's the middle of the week and Fox and Walter have returned to Virginia Beach. This time, they're at the intersection of Constitution Avenue and Jeanne Street, where the traffic flow is regulated by a ``Stop'' sign, three ``Yield'' signs, signs with arrows and a curious-looking family of white and yellow ceramic markers embedded in the asphalt.
They look like half-buried bowling balls.
Linda Thompson and Catherine Hannan called Fox to come by and videotape drivers who ignore the signs and markers and streak through the intersection without stopping. ``We need a light here,'' says Thompson.
A little later in the day, Fox and Walter rendezvous with Sandi Myers at the intersection of Rosemont Road and Virginia Beach Boulevard in Virginia Beach. She is there to show the WAVY crew how drivers turning left onto Rosemont ignore the light when it turns red.
``They just keep coming,'' she said. Before long, Rosemont Road and the intersection are bumper-to-bumper with those who cheated on the light.
That stacks up drivers who wish to turn right from Virginia Beach Boulevard.
A mess.
Fox suggests a sign: ``Do not block intersection.''
When ``Road Rebels'' covered a similar problem on Indian River Road near Level Green Boulevard in Virginia Beach not long ago, the police showed up later to write tickets for drivers who were blocking the intersection.
That pumped up the WAVY crew.
``These road rebels just don't get it,'' said Fox. ``Where is their common sense?''
When the hardheads behind the wheel ignored the turning lane at Shore Drive and Diamond Springs Road and chose instead to turn on pavement clearly marked out of bounds, Fox chewed them out.
``Do you know you're cheating?''
The man is on a mission.
It was last November, at the start of the Christmas shopping season, when Stokes assigned Fox to do a story about the traffic crush at shopping malls. Fox found drivers who offended other drivers by taking up two parking spaces when one would do.
By zipping across parking lots. By ignoring ``Stop'' signs.
``Some drivers don't know the meaning of the word `Stop,' '' said Fox. That piece about shopping mall traffic evolved into the weekly ``Road Rebels'' series. ``It snowballed,'' said Fox.
To keep the complaints coming, Fox offers a ``Road Rebels'' T-shirt to viewers who connect with him. His number is 393-1010.
Don't you dare run the red light. The eyes of Andy Fox and the camera lens of Rich Walter may be upon you. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
D. KEVIN ELLIOTT/Staff
WAVY reporter Andy Fox interviews Sandi Myers at the corner of
Virginia Beach Boulevard and Rosemont Road as Rich Walter films the
scene.
by CNB