I was going to post this in DC Metro MINIs but with the coming Dragon event I wanted to let our neighbors to the north (aka Damnd Yankies) know about increased law inforcement on Va highways... ya'll be safe now. Ya hear.
John

http://www.tricities.com/tristate/tr...3-05-0009.html

ABINGDON – Flashing blue lights have been showing up in more rear-view mirrors for those traveling Interstate 81 and other highways in Washington County.

In 2006, sheriff’s deputies wrote more than 9,300 traffic tickets that generated hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines.

Because of a 2004 change in county policy, most of the revenue generated by tickets goes back to the Sheriff’s Office.

The numbers started increasing in January 2005, when Sheriff Fred Newman decided to get more aggressive about patrolling the highways for motorists speeding or committing other traffic offenses.

Of course, it means more grumbling over tickets, but law enforcement officials say it means safer highways, more criminals behind bars and other benefits to county residents.

Between Jan. 1, 2005, and June 30 last year, traffic enforcement revenue in Washington County topped half a million dollars. Where does all the money go?

"It’s used for employee supplements, it’s used to make purchases of equipment and ... it’s used in crime prevention," said Newman.

"We try to utilize the monies as much as we can with Project Lifesaver and things of that nature to benefit the citizens of the county."

Washington County sheriff’s deputies wrote 9,305 traffic tickets last year, 7,007 of them for speeding.

The average speed cited on I-81 was 79 miles per hour.

Of the money collected in Washington County, 80 percent goes back to the sheriff’s office, and the county keeps the rest.

Of the money returned to the sheriff’s office, the bulk goes to deputies in the form of salary supplements and extra pay.

Deputies work the highways for overtime pay on their days off, in addition to those who are already patrolling county roads. They also receive a salary supplement of $2,400 a year.

The program began at the start of 2005 and, now in its third year, it is more than paying for itself.

Five years ago, Newman decided to keep traffic enforcement revenue in the county rather than sending it to Richmond. The county’s Board of Supervisors voted in 2004 to let the sheriff’s office keep 80 percent of the revenue.

Newman estimates that before the supervisors agreed to this 80/20 split, between $60,000 and $70,000 from traffic enforcement went into the county’s general fund each year.

In the program’s first year and a half, it generated $516,072, or $380,857 for the sheriff’s office and $135,214 for the general fund.

Its supporters applaud the same feature of the program that critics disparage: money provides an incentive for the Sheriff’s Office to write more speeding tickets.

In 2004, before the program, sheriff’s deputies wrote 1,602 traffic tickets. In 2005, the program’s first year, they wrote 10,018.

"I knew the county didn’t have the funds to pay our deputies to conduct traffic enforcement, so our agency found a way to make it possible," Newman said.

According to sheriff’s office figures, $114,552 of the money generated has gone to pay for the program, or 30 percent of the Sheriff’s Office total.

A larger amount, $166,000, has gone to salary supplements for sheriff’s deputies.

That leaves about a quarter of the money for other purposes, such as Project Lifesaver, which helps find Alzheimer’s patients who wander off, and a reverse-911 system that will alert people if a danger, such as a chemical spill, occurs near their homes.

Newman said more aggressive enforcement has also drastically decreased the number of crashes on the county’s highways.

Statistics provided by Newman support his statement – crash statistics are down for six major highways, and the total number of fatalities is also down.

With its safety and monetary benefits, the idea of using county personnel for Interstate traffic enforcement is catching on, but Wayne Pike, who started it back in the 1980s, says it originally drew much criticism.

"I actually had a lot of criticism from other sheriffs," said Pike, who served for 20 years as sheriff in Wythe County before being appointed to the U.S. Marshal’s Office for the Western District of Virginia in 2002.

"I don’t care about how popular it is," Pike said. "I’m trying to do something that’s meaningful for public safety. I never understood why they wasn’t doing it."

Wythe County contains more than 100 miles of Interstate highway, and Pike said he hoped the visibility of law enforcement officers would deter criminals from stopping in his county to commit crimes along Interstates 81 and 77.

"I did some research on court rulings and actually wrote an ordinance that the county would adopt state code. This would keep the money in the county," Pike explained. "We were able to put in a nice 911 center, a nice system, buy the cars we needed, buy the equipment we needed."

Traffic began to slow down, he said. Wythe County got such a reputation in the program’s first few years that by 1990, AAA was advising travelers to watch their speed when driving through the county.

"We have a lot of people coming through from Ohio and Ontario," Pike said. "They’re all going to Myrtle Beach, and they’re all going too fast."

Pike said he also started the practice of allowing deputies to work the Interstates for extra pay on some of their days off.

He estimates now as many as half of Virginia’s counties have a similar program.

"It made me feel good," he said of the duplicate programs, "because I remember the time that sheriffs would be critical."

Pike and Newman both say traffic enforcement on the Interstate has also meant catching many criminals.

"We’ve confiscated drugs, we’ve confiscated stolen weapons, guns, we’ve gotten other stolen property, we’ve gotten stolen vehicles, you get drunk drivers," Newman said. "We actually ended up making arrests for wanted persons from other states."

Bristol Virginia Police Chief Bill Price said that while his department isn’t out looking for speeders on the Interstate, his officers do make a point of catching drug dealers traveling through the city. They’re often able to stop people they suspect are carrying drugs because those people are also speeding, Price said.

Bristol Tennessee, with just more than a mile of Interstate, leaves speed enforcement to the Tennessee Highway Patrol, said Bristol Tennessee patrol Capt. Walter Musgrove.

In both states, traffic enforcement on the Interstate has traditionally been the role of state police rather than local law enforcement agencies.

But, like Washington County, many localities are now reaping the benefits of revenue generated by stricter enforcement of the speed limit. And speeders are getting more tickets to gripe about.

"A speeding summons is a form of punishment, and it’s given and issued hopefully so that you’ll be aware of your speed and slow down, and hopefully, you won’t be involved in a motor vehicle crash," Newman said. "I feel like it’s basically a user fee. If you don’t speed, you don’t pay a fine."

dmccown@bristolnews.com | (276) 791-0701

 

DaCrema, good call. VA Staties are very "to the book" especially with out-of-state plates. Becareful in VA.

 

and radar detectors are illegal

 

and VA makes up most of the drive . I watch the truckers' speed carefully cuz they always know where the smokies are. I pray for clouds, so I can't get busted from the air.
It's such a bummer, cuz parts of 81 just beg to be .....driven .

 

And I just bought a new radar detector....I know its illegal in VA but this just adds to my hatred of VA.

 

Is going to Raleigh-Durham, then across on 40 any faster? It cuts down the amount of time spent in VA.

 

Whoa, whoa slow your roll!!! (don't be hatin' cause we don't have a Jimmy's Cut-Rate Liquor store every quarter mile )

Admittedly 81 begs to be driven fast, if only cause it's soooo ridiculously boring!

 

Indeed radar detectors are illegal but I have found a use for my old CB radio, the truckers have the same issues with tickets we have and routinely give very accurate "road reports" to the other truckers. If you travel fast long distances you really need a CB, sometimes better than even the best detector!

 

good update. you just have to love virginia police. police should start cracking down on people checking their email from their blackberries in their cars and reading the newspaper or putting on makeup too. those people are the real threat.

 

The Virginia area on 81 about an hour away from the TN border seems especially bad with radar traps. I am speaking from experience here.

 

with a sunroof taking up most of the space on my roof, there's no place to put that antenna. We have a CB, somewhere in the La Brea Tarpit of our garage. Might have to dig it up and figure out how to mount the antenna..

 

They have cell phone CB antennas. Here is the link

 

And as someone who understands antenna design, I can tell you that will give you dragon like cell phone reception for your CB.

This is by far and away the best antenna you can buy for a CB, the only thing better would be custom designed for a specific channel.

 

It's exactly the same distance. That's how we're going down for the MINI Cup 2.5a. I think it's actually timewise faster because of the amount of truck traffic on 81.

 

Umm, no it's not.

I-95s to US-64w to I-40w 735m 12.5h
I-81 route 584m 10h

 

I don't know what mapping program you're using but you're way off...

DC to Durham, NC - 258 miles - 4hr 21 mins
Durham, NC to Fontana Village NC - 317 miles - 5 hr 39 mins

='s 575 miles - realistically divided by 60 mph = 9.5 hours.

 

That would be why they invented duct tape and chewin' gum....

 

I was going by the route asked about in this thread

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ad.php?t=97822

I assumed it was the same route being asked about here...

Plus I figured it from Annapolis, MD

 

Here's my errors,

I figured it using Google and MS Streets and Trips,

Annapolis, MD (Katie's location)
down 95, however she would get to 95 from center of Annapolis
to 64 w into Raleigh, then 40 w to 74 to 28 to Fontana

735 miles

 

Well, I'm probably gonna do 81...again. I'm used to it, I've found a nice place to stay in Abingdon that I've stayed in every year. I'll just set the cruise and listen to a book...thanks again for the info, mielnicki.