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Culpeper County resident Joanne Russell pleaded with supervisors this week to lower the speed limit on a stretch of road where a Fredericksburg Christian Academy student was recently killed.
At a board meeting Tuesday, Russell called the four-mile stretch off State Route 3 near her home "the most dangerous highway in Culpeper County." It is the lone remaining two-lane section of Route 3 between Lignum and Stevensburg.
She reminded the board that there have been six traffic fatalities in the area in the past several years.
The most recent occurred Friday night when a 17-year-old Fredericksburg Christian Academy senior, Kelsey Jean-Marie Orndorff of Culpeper, was killed and a local doctor was seriously injured in a two-vehicle crash.
On Monday, Kenneth Winthrow said a lot of accidents happen along the curve in front of his home near Clay Hill Road, despite frequent speed checks by state troopers. Many drivers exceed the 55-mph speed limit there, he said.
"It's a bad stretch of highway," Winthrow said. "This is a real speed zone through here."
The Commonwealth Transportation Board has discussed removing funds from planned improvements along this stretch and shifting them to an interchange project at the junction of U.S. 29 and State Route 666 near Eastern View High School.
The board took no action on Russell's request.
The Virginia Department of Transportation must do a traffic study before a road's speed limit can be changed. The traffic study examines the number and type of vehicle crashes, along with other factors.
A request for a traffic study must come from a county's Board of Supervisors.
--Staff writers Corey Byers and Kelly Hannon contributed to this report.
Donnie Johnston:
Email: djohnston@freelancestar.com
