THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, February 16, 1996 TAG: 9602160039
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E11 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KATIE CLARK, HIGH SCHOOL CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Long : 106 lines
NEARLY ALL Virginia Beach teenagers know about the game. Many have played it. Few understand they could end up as losers.
The directions are simple. When passing the sign recording deaths from accidents on Shore Drive, players accelerate abruptly and announce they are about to increase the statistic by the number of passengers in their car.
Teens who play this game do not take the dangers of driving on Shore Drive seriously. However, the city does; Virginia Beach has studied the hazards and plans to reduce them.
Shore Drive's tree-lined beauty can disguise its risks, unless a traveler notices the roadside memorials marking sites of fatal accidents. Since 1977, accidents on this highway have resulted in 58 deaths.
Student involvement in three recent crashes illustrates how dangerous the thoroughfare can be. In 1994, a single-car accident claimed the lives of two Cox High students, Marianne Olivieri and Laine Schroeder, and injured two others. The students were returning home from school when the crash occurred. Olivieri and Schroeder were passengers in the back seat when the car fish-tailed and careened trunk-first into trees lining the road.
An investigation by the Virginia Beach Police determined reckless behavior caused the accident.
Earlier this year, a drunk driver who ran a red light in front of Westminster-Canterbury collided with a car driven by Amy White, a Cox High senior. White was leaving the retirement home after picking up her paycheck when the accident occurred.
``I was lucky no one was (occupying the passenger seat) because they would be dead now,'' said White. ``I was really scared and shaky especially because it came out of nowhere.''
On Oct. 7, 1995, rain created slippery conditions that contributed to an accident, involving two Cox High juniors and a former Cox student, near Three Ships' Inn. After failing to stop for a red light, their vehicle smashed into cars that had stopped. All three of the car's occupants required hospitalization; none was wearing a seat belt.
Cox High junior Vanessa Menniti, passenger, described her experience: ``I went through the windshield and when I came back through, I was caught. Glass cut everything under my neck. My head split open. My tongue was completely cut off. . . They thought I would never talk again. . . My speech is getting better.''
Menniti's speech was remarkably clear and understandable, until sensitive topics stimulated emotions which garbled her delivery. Describing her experience during and after surgery was especially difficult.
She said, ``My heart stopped twice (during surgery), but they brought me back. I can't believe it. I was really lucky. . . My friend's praying really helped.''
``(It was) after surgery that I couldn't talk. I was writing on people's hands. I wrote their hands raw. My mom told me I didn't care about my condition. I asked about (the other student's condition.)''
Menniti needs plastic surgery but must wait six months. She will be under medical observation for a year. The experience has affected her attitude about driving.
Menniti is not interested in getting her license.
``I'm scared to be in a car. I don't want to be,'' she said.
Menniti says when she sees brake lights from a car, she ``freaks out'' if the driver of her car doesn't immediately brake.
These three accidents suggest both driver error and physical characteristics of Shore Drive can contribute to crashes.
``Going 55 (on the portion of Shore Drive near the Oceanfront) is safe, but if you increase your speed you are stepping outside the design of the road and cannot hang onto the curve. If you make a mistake, there is no chance to recover,'' said Michael Greenwood, civil engineer in the Virginia Beach Traffic Engineering Division.
Teen-age drivers are especially vulnerable to conditions that provide no chance for recovery. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, the majority of fatal teen-age crashes are single-car accidents involving speeding. Vehicles leave the road and overturn or strike a fixed object, like the trees bordering Shore Drive, or overturn on the road. Youth and inexperience are the general causes for these accidents.
Greenwood, noting that Shore Drive's westbound lane is the more dangerous, attributed many accidents there to drivers who leave the Oceanfront impaired from alcohol, exhausted from the sun, or inattentive from any cause.
Reducing hazards on Shore Drive recently became a city objective; consequently, Virginia Beach has taken advantage of a state program offering competitive grants to eliminate high accident areas. The Shore Drive Hazard Elimination Project resulted from this effort.
Greenwood said that ordinarily Shore Drive would not qualify for the designation of high-accident area because the daily traffic there is not great enough; however, the state government recognized Shore Drive as a problem area because of its frequent accidents.
After competing with other cities for a portion of the state funding, Virginia Beach received a $.5-million award for safety improvements on the westbound area of Shore Drive near the Oceanfront.
On Tuesday, City Council approved a plan that would add narrow strips of pavement along the shoulders of the two lanes and ``rumble strips,'' grooves cut into the asphalt that alert drivers that they've left the road. The area now is unpaved and in some areas dips off abruptly into soft sand.
The city's Department of Traffic Engineering would authorize the removal of 69 trees that are too close to the roadway and pose a traffic hazard. The project includes use of reflective paint, guardrails along some stretches, more oversized traffic signs and additional asphalt to even out dips in the roadway. MEMO: This article was first printed in the Cox High newspaper, The Falcon
Press. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Katie Clark is a junior at Cox High School.
by CNB