THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 31, 1996 TAG: 9610310307
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE MATHER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 90 lines
It was Halloween night one year ago when Sgt. Tom McCarthy steered his police cruiser onto the shoulder of the city's deadliest road.
The crash that had summoned him was horrific.
A car hurtling along Shore Drive had suddenly lurched off the pavement and hit a pine tree. The impact split the vehicle in half. Flames belched from the torn metal.
Three people crawled away. Eric Paris, the 21-year-old driver, did not.
It was typical Shore Drive carnage. Most of the accidents that have killed 59 people on the road since 1977 happened like that Halloween crash.
Alcohol. Excessive speeds. Unbuckled seatbelts.
But for some reason, there have been no fatalities on Shore Drive in the year since Eric Paris was killed.
It has been a year since that Halloween night, and a year since the seven-member Fatal Accident Crash Team has studied a set of tell-tale skid marks that end with twisted wreckage and a corpse.
Since the police department began tallying the Shore Drive totals in 1977, there has never been a fatality-free year - until now.
``I wish I could take credit for it,'' said McCarthy, supervisor of the fatal-accident team. ``But I can't. I really don't know what has happened.''
From 1977 through 1994, an average of 3.2 people have died on Shore Drive annually, most on the straight stretch of highway from Great Neck Road to the Oceanfront.
In 1995, there was just one fatality, and none so far in 1996.
``Either the people are driving better, or they are avoiding the road,'' McCarthy said. ``We used to patrol there and get 10, 15, 20 people a night doing 70 mph or better. When we run radar now, we get a lot of people going below the speed limit.''
On Wednesday, Officer Scott Roughton sat in his gray cruiser, parked on the shoulder of Shore Drive. He listened to the oscillating whine of his radar gun as it locked onto an approaching car, and he waited for the digital display to flash a speed.
``Most people are behaving themselves today,'' he said as the numbers rolled by: 50, 47, 55.
Most cars motored under the 55-mph limit. Roughton said that's become the norm, although there's always an exception.
Moments later, a gold Mitsubishi truck barreled by at 75.
Roughton charged the driver, a 17-year-old Cox High School student, with reckless driving, less than a half-mile from where two other Cox students died on April 13, 1994. Laine Schroeder, 14, and Marianne Olivieri, 15, were passengers in a speeding car that swerved out of control in the middle of the afternoon.
Their two white crosses have joined many others marking spots where young lives ended. All but one of the 17 victims in the past five years were younger than 26.
The crosses and other changes along Shore Drive may have increased drivers' awareness of the danger, police said. Some of the changes have been subtle, and some have not.
Many low spots on the shoulder have been filled, making it easier for inattentive drivers to recover from mistakes. Large signs and rumble strips warn drivers of impending curves and speed-limit changes. And imposing warning signs on the roadway proclaim Shore Drive's death toll to passing motorists. The sign is two fatalities behind.
Sometimes, all seven FACT officers patrol Shore Drive in what they call a ``wolfpack.'' The idea is for the police presence to thwart risk-takers.
But the most ambitious plan for change - a controversial city strategy to save lives by removing hundreds of roadside trees - has never materialized.
No one in the police department blames the road itself for the crashes. Nearly all the accidents have happened because of driver error, usually compounded by alcohol and high speeds.
McCarthy said he's hoping this Halloween, and many more, go by without another ugly crash.
``That wouldn't break my heart at all,'' he said. ``As far as being a fatality-team supervisor, I wish they'd put me out of a job.'' ILLUSTRATION: HUY NGUYEN color photos/The Virginian-Pilot
Officer Scott Roughton keeps his radar on the motorists along Shore
Drive. It has become the norm for most cars to motor under the
55-mph limit. In hopes of thwarting risk-takers, sometimes seven
officers at once will police the road.
A cross marks the site of the most recent fatal accident on Shore
Drive. Eric Paris, 21, died on October 31, 1995. From 1977 through
1994, an average of 3.2 people have died on the road each year.
Map
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KEYWORDS: ACCIDENT TRAFFIC STATISTICS SHORE
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