Editorial: Project 151 brings about a safer road

From staff reports
Published: November 12, 2008

After the fourth traffic fatality in slightly more than a month last year, a group of residents along Virginia 151 in Nelson County decided that was enough.

They organized. They talked to government leaders at the state and local level. And they finally got results. They succeeded in getting the speed limit reduced from 55 mph to 45 mph on several stretches and to 50 mph on others. They managed to get the state Department of Transportation to post new signs along the highway calling attention to the potential danger of busy intersections.

The organization — known as Project 151 — has helped make that 18-mile stretch of scenic highway that runs north and south between U.S. 250 and Brent’s Mountain safer today than it was more than a year ago. The efforts of those folks show once again that when a like-minded group of residents makes up its mind to achieve a certain goal, it can be done.

The accident that galvanized the residents who live in a half-dozen small communities along that highway killed a mother and her two daughters. That was August 2007. A month later another woman was killed at an intersection on Virginia 151.

Before those fatalities, there was an average of about 60 accidents occurring annually on the highway, causing some 30 injuries and one death.

The changes created by the state and local government have reduced those figures dramatically. In the period between Jan. 1 and July 1 of this year, only 13 accidents have occurred, injuring five people. That’s less than half the number occurring in previous years.

Tommy Stafford, a spokesman for the organization, said recently he believes the organization will exist on a permanent basis because it can’t give up on the constant need for traffic safety on the roadway. “Last year was unprecedented. Something had to be done,” he said. “I think we always need to be around just as a kind of check and balance group.”

It also needs to be around to prod government at whatever level to do the right thing to make the highway safer for those who use it every day in their commutes to and from work and school.

State highway officials said they had identified several stretches of road that were more dangerous than others. Speed limits on those stretches were reduced and new signs proclaiming “areas of increased enforcement” were posted last December.

At the intersection with Virginia 635, which is where the triple-fatality accident occurred, new turn lanes will be constructed. Almost $1 million has been approved for the project, on which preliminary design work has already begun.

In August, the Nelson County Board of Supervisors formally asked for the speed limit from Nellysford to the intersection of Virginia 6 be lowered from 55 mph to 45 mph.

Residents also proposed a ban on the through trucks — mostly tractor-trailers — that use the narrow, curvy road to shave off miles between the U.S. 29 corridor and Interstate 64. That has not yet happened and is not likely to because a state study shows there are not enough residences along the highway to justify banning the truck traffic.

Nonetheless, the residents who organized Project 151 have made themselves heard. They took their concerns about the highway’s safety to the state and to local officials and they have achieved results.

Good for them. Their efforts are creating a safer highway for everyone who uses it.