THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, January 29, 1996 TAG: 9601250022
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 44 lines
Shore Drive is undeniably one of the most beautiful stretches of highway in Virginia Beach. It's also the most deadly. Since 1977, 58 people have lost their lives on this bucolic road.
City engineers have proposed making the road safer by chopping down 345 trees. In addition, they would line the most dangerous shoulders with guardrails and rumble strips and level dips in the pavement.
They insist this can be done without marring the landscape.
Yet the plan has sparked sharp disagreement at the Beach since it was made public last month. Those who favor it praise the plan for valuing lives above trees. Those who oppose it blame the rash of Shore Drive fatalities on inattentive - or worse, drunken - drivers who caused their own accidents.
What seems to be forgotten in the emotional debate is that Shore Drive is the route of choice for many Cox High School students who live at the North End. In fact, two Cox students died on their way home from school on a wet April afternoon in 1994.
Teenage drivers are all inexperienced. They're often inattentive.
It is the duty of the city to make the highways safe for its drivers - especially its young people.
Despite its best efforts so far, Virginia Beach has not been successful in making Shore Drive a safer thoroughfare. The speed limits, warning signs and even the little crosses dotting the shoulders have not stopped the carnage.
The city should heed the engineer's recommendation to take down all the trees growing within 15 feet of the pavement and install guardrails, speed bumps and rumble strips where necessary.
We would remind all drivers to exercise extra caution on Shore Drive and encourage driver-education teachers to warn students of this dangerous artery.
Shore Drive is a treasure in this beautiful region. So are our young drivers. by CNB