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Report labels Hampton Roads as a deadly area for Virginia drivers

Everyone who lives in the Tidewater area knows that some local roads are safer than others. Some highways and intersections have reputations for being dangerous and more prone to causing accidents, while sometimes it is drivers in a certain neighborhood who have a reputation for being reckless.

A recently released report has cast a shadow on the Hampton Roads area, fingering it as a dangerous and deadly area for Virginia drivers. The statistics are sobering: from 2006 to 2008, Hampton Roads apparently had the highest crash rate of any Virginia metro area.

Hampton Roads Crash Facts

The report was presented in draft form before an advisory committee of the Hampton Roads Transportation Planning Organization. It included a number of statistics for Hampton Roads, including:

• There is one traffic crash in Hampton Roads every 19 minutes
• A person dies every 2.5 days because of a Hampton Roads traffic accident
• There were 153 traffic fatalities across the region in 2008, a 19 percent increase since 2003 (compare this to a 13 percent drop across the state of Virginia in the same time period)
• Urban areas had more crashes than rural areas because of the high number of “traffic conflicts” (i.e. driveways and intersections) in the urban areas
• The crash rate in Hampton Roads is 4 percent higher than the rate in Richmond and Roanoake
• The Hampton Roads crash rate is ten percent higher than the rate in Northern Virginia
• 41 percent of all fatal Hampton Roads crashes involve alcohol
• 8 percent of all crashes (fatal and non-fatal) involved alcohol
• Seat belt use needs to be addressed in Hampton Roads, as 64 percent of those killed were not wearing a seat belt or child safety seat restraint

Leading cause of ALL accidents in Hampton Roads:

• Following too closely
• Distracted driving
• Failure to yield

Leading cause of FATAL accidents in Hampton Roads

• Distracted driving
• Speeding

As bad as these statistics sound, the total number of accidents has actually dropped every year since 2004, showing an overall decline of 17 percent. Part of the reason for fewer accidents was fewer vehicle miles traveled, which can be attributed to the rising cost of fuel according to a senior transportation engineer.

Help for Virginia auto accident victims

Are you suffering after a serious auto accident in Hampton Roads or a nearby area? Get help from attorneys who can really make a difference: contact the Norfolk based personal injury attorneys at Weisberg & Zaleski.

Weisberg & Zaleski, P.C.

112 College Place

Norfolk, VA 23510

Toll Free: (800) 690-0235

Phone: (757) 622-7740

Fax: (757) 533-9223

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