Tag: traffic

A Student Services Moving and Storage truck became the latest victim of the 14th Street bridge and its unyielding 10-foot clearance. The truck heading westbound on University Avenue was jammed under the bridge around 8:45am Thursday. A woman who answered the phone at Student Services says no one was injured and it’s not the first time the bridge has gotten one of the company’s trucks. She declined to give her name. At least one bright spot for the company and whoever was getting  moved: The truck appeared to be empty.

Prominent local realtor Andrew Middleditch, who was charged with driving under the influence following a May 25 fatal crash on Barracks Road, was released from jail Thursday on a $15,000 bond, according to the Albemarle Charlottesville Regional Jail.

Ivy resident Middleditch, 55, was traveling east in the 2900 block of Barracks Road between Old Garth Road and Montvue in a 2013 GMC Yukon. He made a left turn into Haffner Farm, according to a police press release, at the same time Lonnie Wycliffe Branham, 78, attempted to go around Middleditch in a legal passing zone. Branham’s 1990 Chevy Lumina collided with the Yukon at 8:12am, according to police, who say the Lumina overturned and Branham died at the scene.

Judge William Barkley approved bond May 26 on the condition Middleditch neither consume nor possess alcohol, and he must, at his own expense, wear a bracelet that detects whether he’s in contact with alcohol, said Albemarle police spokesperson Carter Johnson. Neither Middleditch nor his attorney, Fran Lawrence, returned phone calls from C-VILLE.

This was Middleditch’s second DUI arrest. He was convicted in 2011, and had a 30-day suspended sentence and a restricted license for a year, according to court records. He also was charged with refusing a breath or blood test, a charge that was dropped.

A second DUI carries a mandatory 20 days in jail, and can go up to 40 days, depending on how high his blood alcohol content was, said legal expert David Heilberg.

Middleditch has not been charged with manslaughter, and police said the investigation is ongoing. Heilberg said the prosecutor will have to determine causation: whether Middleditch’s alleged intoxication was responsible for the fatality or whether it was merely coincidence. Such consideration includes whether his left signal was on, how fast Branhamwas going and whether a sober person would have looked in the mirror before turning, said Heilberg. “It’s not a black-and-white causation issue and could be argued by each side,” he said.

Before he retired in 1999, Branham worked at excavation contractor A.G. Dillard. According to his obituary, he liked tinkering with antique tractors and trucks, he restored a green-and-white 1972 Chevy Super Cheyenne named “Baby Doll,” and he loved bluegrass music and flat footing.

Middleditch has sold over $400 million in real estate in the 25 years he’s been in business, according to his website, including historic estates like Castle Hill in Keswick and Verulam in Ivy.

“He always seemed like a decent guy who worked hard,” said an acquaintance, who declined to be identified.

“The whole thing is so sad,” said another.

Middleditch is scheduled to be in court July 9.

Dana Monroe said she could see the school bus at the top of the hill at Rives and Vine streets as she turned out of Ridgecrest Drive in Belmont. And when she felt something hit her car, she pulled over.

Monroe was charged May 15 for disregarding a stopped school bus in an incident in which a 5-year-old boy was struck by her vehicle, according to police. But she said, “He ran into the back tire of my car. If he’d run in front of my car, I would have seen him.”

The 30-year-old mother of three was driving two of her children to school, and said the bus stopped as she went past it in the opposite direction. “Children are pretty observant,” she said. “I’m pretty sure my children would have been screaming, Mom, if the stop signs were out on the bus.”

According to police, four witnesses and the bus driver said its stop signs were displayed. Monroe said she was told the bus has a camera. “If the camera says I’m wrong, I’m willing to take responsibility for my action,” she said. “I have children myself.”

C-VILLE has made multiple requests to view video footage, and at press time police were still checking on that.

The statute Monroe was charged under is a reckless driving charge, which is a Class 1 misdemeanor, said defense attorney Dave Heilberg, who is not connected with this case.

As for the reliability of eyewitnesses, Heilberg has written the book, or rather, a chapter in the book called “Eyewitness Identification Procedures” in Defending Criminal Cases in Virginia. Said the attorney, “It depends.”

The Birdwood neighborhood off the Route 250 Bypass bore the brunt of inconvenience during McIntire interchange construction, with backed-up traffic making it difficult to exit and no easy way to head west. Now the residents say traffic engineers’ refusal to reopen Birdwood Road has had them sliding down a steep and icy Hillcrest Road into the McIntire Road ramp, and they’re threatening legal action if someone gets hurt.

“It’s negligent behavior at this point,” said Birdwood Court Homeowners Association president Laura Rydin. She went before City Council March 2 and said the poorly plowed Hillcrest Road and black ice sent three of her neighbors shooting down a hill into oncoming traffic after the February 21 snow.

“It’s inexcusable to put our lives at risk,” said Rydin, who accused the city of “utterly ignoring our request” and forcing residents to use an unsafe exit while permanently closing down Birdwood Road, which has been there for decades. She presented a petition signed by 41 people to city councilors to reopen Birdwood Road.

The neighborhood of around 50 homes, which surrounds Covenant Lower School, has been unable to convince city and VDOT engineers that its residents can safely make a right turn onto the new U.S. 250 exit ramp from Birdwood Road.

When parents are dropping off children at Covenant, it can take about 20 minutes to get out of the neighborhood, said Rydin. And when a moving van couldn’t negotiate a left turn onto narrow Hillcrest last fall, the whole neighborhood was trapped because Birdwood Road remained resolutely closed, with four signs warning residents “do not enter” onto the U.S. 250 exit ramp.

“Overkill,” said Rydin of the excess signage.

Jeanette Janiczek, urban construction initiative programs manager with Charlottes-ville, insists Birdwood Road must remain closed for the residents’ own good. “This decision was made and reviewed by engineers from the city, VDOT, the Federal Highway Safety Administration and the project engineers,” she wrote in an e-mail. Those professionals agree that this is the safest configuration for all drivers and that no physical improvements can be made to open Birdwood Road, she said.

“This is essentially the city saying that no one knows how to use basic Driving 101 skills when it comes to arriving at a stop sign, looking all around for other cars and then executing a safe right turn,” responds Rydin.

Councilor Kathy Galvin said it was a “very terrifying thought to me we’d have people sliding off into 250.” She’s requested a meeting with City Manager Maurice Jones, Rydin and other concerned parties now that the interchange is built and “we’ve seen what happens with ice and snow.”

Galvin said she’s hearing a frustrated neighborhood. “I was shocked to learn that with the McIntire interchange there was no Birdwood neighborhood steering committee,” she said.

According to Janiczek, the city and engineers met with the neighborhood four times, starting in 2008, although those meetings did not satisfy some residents.

“You’ve got to have a more comprehensive approach than just saying, ‘No, you can’t.’” Galvin, an architect, said community engagement is a major change in how the city does business, and that it has to be done “in a very authentic way.”

She said, “We’ve got to get the right people in the room and work the puzzle pieces to get the right approach. We need to demonstrate we’re serious listening to people and proceeding to do something about it.”

“Just reopen Birdwood,” said resident Rydin. “It was there since 1912 or 1914. Do you want someone to die to prove our point?”

The owners of Albemarle Square and a local Wendy’s have hired state Senator and former attorney general candidate Mark Obenshain to file a federal lawsuit against VDOT and Federal Highway Administration officials over the planned grade-separated interchange at Rio Road and Route 29.

The suit, filed March 6, alleges that VDOT failed to get a required environmental impact study and split Route 29 improvements into separate projects to skirt the study and go forward with the $84 million interchange, which is bitterly opposed by a number of businesses in that area.

Opponents of the Meadow Creek Parkway unsuccessfully sued on a similar basis, claiming the project was improperly split into segments to avoid an environmental impact study.

Albemarle Square is owned by Rio Associates LP. Its agent, Bob Hodous, declined to reveal who the owners of the LP are. Wendy’s is owned by Mimosa LLC, and its contact, Frank Birckhead, did not return phone calls from C-VILLE.

The suit says VDOT plans to use eminent domain to take some of the plaintiff’s properties, which they claim is a violation of their constitutional rights. They’re seeking an injunction until the environmental studies are done.

Albemarle High grad Riley M. Cole, 22, died Thursday afternoon, December 11, on Route 20 in Buckingham on his way home from his first semester at Longwood University, according to his obituary. Virginia State Police say Cole was traveling north in a 1997 Infiniti when he ran off the road, overcorrected and hit a southbound tractor trailer driven by Wayne E. Johnson, 62. Johnson was not injured, and both men were wearing seatbelts.

Twenty-five-year-old Jessee L. Robinson of Swoope died at the scene around 3am Monday, December 15, in Augusta County when the 1994 Jeep Cherokee he was driving ran off Glebe School Road, struck a fence and rolled several times. According to state police, both Robinson and a 16-year-old passenger were ejected from the car. Neither were wearing seatbelts, said police, and alcohol and speed were factors.