Charlottesville registered no traffic fatalities in 2006, but eight people died on Albemarle County roads.
The ages of those killed stretch from 17 to 84, but in five of these cases, the passenger killed was under 24. A few of the accidents yielded no proof of cause, but analyses of tire marks, car positions and autopsies suggest that speed and alcohol each factored into four of the deaths, according to Bob McCormick of the Albemarle County Police Department. And seven of the eight fatal accidents involved only one car.
Lieutenant John Teixeira of the Albemarle County Police Department counts eight fatalities among the 3,000+ accidents in the county last year. The City of Charlottesville notched over 1,000.
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Intersection of Blenheim Road and Jefferson Mill
10:20pm, September 12
Number of vehicles: 1
Contributing factor: Speed
Fatality: 23-year-old male, not wearing seatbelt
Injury: 22-year-old male, wearing seatbelt
A speeding car leaves the road and connects with a tree, killing the unbelted passenger.
3400 block of Monacan Trail
Early morning, November 4
Number of vehicles: 1
Contributing factors: Alcohol, speed
Fatality: 24-year-old male, wearing seatbelt
Injury: 21-year-old male, wearing seatbelt
It could’ve been the drinks. Or the overcorrection after veering off the road. Or, according to McCormick, a combination of the two in a vehicle that was moving at “at least 70 miles per hour” along this southern portion of Route 29.
4900 block of Seminole Trail
12:46am, February 7
Number of vehicles: 1
Contributing factor: Unknown
Fatality: 48-year-old male, wearing seatbelt
“That was a bad one,” says McCormick, and he’s right; the driver was still alive inside his fireball of a vehicle when county police arrived at the scene. “The only witness was the driver himself,” says McCormick. “We couldn’t get any information from the vehicle because it was burned to a crisp.”
2000 block of Seminole Trail
9:05pm, April 30
Number of vehicles: 1
Contributing factors: Alcohol, dim lighting
Fatality: 41-year-old male pedestrian, crossing Seminole Trail at Carrsbrook Drive
“The alcohol and the low lighting put the pedestrian at fault in this one,” says McCormick. “The vehicle showed no signs of speeding or other at-fault factors.”
Richmond Road, near Limestone Farm
Early morning, August 23
Number of vehicles: 1
Contributing factor: Unknown
Fatality: 19-year-old male, not
wearing seatbelt
Not only is this death without a clear cause, McCormick states that the police are not certain about when the accident took place. “The body was found at 6:41am, but it could’ve been out all night,” says McCormick. The dark, hypnotically winding Richmond Road could be the guilty party; McCormick believes that the driver simply fell asleep.
Intersection of Ivy and Canterbury roads
12:15pm, May 16
Number of vehicles: 4
Contributing factor: Driver error
Fatality: 84-year-old female,
wearing seatbelt
Injury: 85-year-old male, wearing seatbelt
Truly, simply, 100 percent accidental. “The vehicle with the injury and the fatality was the vehicle at fault,” says McCormick. “She [the driver] was on the gas when she thought she was on the brake, and just kept going faster and faster and…”
1110 block of Thomas Jefferson Parkway
9:47pm, May 19
Number of vehicles: 1
Contributing factors: Alcohol, speed
Fatality: 17-year-old male, not wearing seatbelt
The youngest victim of a car crash in 2006 met his demise east of Route 20, before Route 53 splits into Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe parkways.
2587 Shifflett’s Mill Road
11:03pm, September 15
Number of vehicles: 1
Contributing factor: Alcohol
Fatality: 22-year-old male, not
wearing seatbelt
Injury: 53-year-old male, not
wearing seatbelt
Albemarle County police cannot be certain that speed played into this accident. However, the driver can be certain that he’ll think twice before guzzling suds and gunning his engine; he is currently charged with involuntary manslaughter and is awaiting trial.
