Over the Thanksgiving holiday, numerous traffic incidents plagued drivers.
In the Roanoke and Montgomery County area, 1,326 tickets were given for speeding. There were 231 drivers cited for reckless driving, eight DUIs, 77 safety belt violations and 27 child seatbelt violations. In addition, 1033 tickets were given for “other” violations.
Across the state, 13 people were killed in 13 separate crashes during the five-day holiday period between Wednesday and Sunday. Alcohol was a factor in at least four of the incidents.
Statewide, there were 10,459 speeding tickets, 2,657 reckless driving cases and 132 DUIs.
Corrine Geller, spokeswoman for the Virginia State Police, said that the violations came from “pure volume” of drivers.
“The roads were congested,” she said, citing travelers commuting for Thanksgiving as well as the high number of college students going back to school over the weekend as the chief causes of traffic incidents.
Tech students traveling back to Blacksburg Sunday evening experienced numerous delays. Several multi-car pileups, one involving around 20 cars, delayed the traffic flow even further.
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People from New Jersey shouldn't be allowed on 81. That would stop the vast majority of these accidents.
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People from VIRGINIA shouldn't be allowed on 81 - that would solve all the problems!
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That's silly people from Virginia are great drivers unlike our greasy neighbor to the north.
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The New Jersey driver comment is so random, not true and
otherwise worthless. People in SUV's, people who text, people
who talk on the phone, people who play with their GPS, people
who tailgate...THOSE are the people who should not be allowed
on I-81...or anywhere else.
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"People in SUV's, people who text, people
who talk on the phone, people who play with their GPS, people who tailgate" i.e. people from New Jersey.
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...people whose hands slip off the wheel because they have recently been run through greasy locks of hair...
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That's so true Anon but while we're at it we should also ban people from Quebec. They're worse than New Jersey drivers if you can believe that. I know it sounds crazy but they are worse drivers than people from New Jersey. They don't seem to have as many accidents though. Everytime there's a break 2/3 of the accidents I'll encounter going home on 81 were caused by people from New Jersey.
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On my way back down I-81 I probably hit 5 or 6 different spots with backups. Sometimes lasting just 10 minutes to as long as 30 minutes. In not any of them did I see an accident. It was always a cop sitting with his radar or a cop with a few cars pulled over.
It's nice to know cops are "enforcing" the rules but if it is the primary cause of all these delays despite volume then what gives? Are they trying to keep us safe by enforcing the rules or pull in more revenue?
With that much volume of traffic on the road little things like cops with radar guns causing people hit the brakes can easily cause backups miles down the road. It's basic traffic science. Cops should be focused on getting traffic to flow smoothly rather than obstructing it.
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Your misplacing the blame. Cops are a necessary evil. They are the tools of government only now we have corrupt government across our nation. Go figure, who puts the losers in office?
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Corruption starts at the top so if the government is corrupt (every government has some degree of corruption..if it's human) then the police force has some degree of corruption. I'm just saying in this case and that particular weekend they should have been more focused on preventing accidents and encouraging traffic flow than putting speed traps and pulling people over left and right unless of course they were a threat on the road. I know cops are necessary but it would help traffic problems also if people didn't hit the brakes and slow down to 55 every time they saw a cop on the side of the road too.
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Have you ever driven around Virginia in a snow or rainstorm? Criticism of out of state drivers seems out of place in light of that. Drivers in Virginia will literally abandon their cars and flee for the woods during snowstorms.
I am from VA and have lived in both states, and NJ drivers are probably better. They definitely aren't worse. The only thing is they are a lot more likely to be wearing a sleeveless shirt and listening to Bon Jovi.
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People from NJ drive in higher volume traffic a lot more then people from VA in general.
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I must be imagining things everytime a see a New Jersey car mangled on the side of the road. Nice try Dago, go back to Jersey.
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sounds like someone's compensating for a tiny wiener.
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Typical Guinea response, don't you have some Springsteen to listen to.
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