Vote goes against pleas of deceased boy’s mother
BY CAROL VAUGHN
FROM FRONT
PARKSLEY — The Accomack County Board of Supervisors on Wednesday failed to endorse a grant application that would fund the study of widening Chincoteague Causeway.
The vote against the project came despite the impassioned plea of the mother of a boy who died in a horrific crash there last August and the support of Del. Lynwood Lewis.
The terms of the grant would require the county to pay $10,000 in county funds to receive $40,000.
“I am begging for shoulders to alleviate the problem of ambulances not being able to get through,” said Beth Bounds before the vote.
Her son, 11-year-old Brendan Chance Holston of Chincoteague, was killed in a three-vehicle accident Aug. 5 on the narrow, two-lane causeway. Ten other people were injured in the crash.
Bounds came upon the accident after being stuck in the resulting traffic tie-up while driving home from work. Leaving her vehicle, she walked up on the crash and found her son was involved.
Since then, she has gathered over 1,000 signatures on a petition asking for improvements to the road. She says the roadway, clogged with summer Sunday traffic, wasn’t wide enough to allow ambulances adequate access the scene.
Chincoteague Supervisor Wanda Thornton introduced a motion for a resolution supporting the application for Transportation Enhancement Grant funds to conduct a survey and engineering study for a bicycle lane — a project that would in effect create shoulders on the road where there now are none.
The motion failed 4-5, with Supervisors Grayson Chesser, Sandy Hart Mears, Steve Mallette, Laura Belle Gordy and Ron Wolff voting against it.
Malette was the only supervisor voting against the measure who spoke to the reason for his vote.
He said the application is premature until the county has “a big picture view” of its overall recreational needs.
The resolution was needed for the Commonweath Transportation Board and the highway department to move forward with the project. The grant application was to be submitted by the Accomack-Northampton Planning District Commission on behalf of Accomack County.
The grant would have been used to complete a survey, environmental document and engineering report on the proposed bicycle lane and to arrive at detailed construction cost estimates.
Lewis in a Dec. 18 letter to Michael A. Estes of VDOT’s Local Assistance Division supported the project, saying, “The causeway is outdated and was never intended to handle the amount of traffic it currently receives. Recent events have shown that it is a safety hazard.”
Lewis said the bicycle lane would “improve the visitor experience of the million visitors that visit Chincoteague Island each year,” and added that the improvements also would “be designed to assist in emergency access during traffic accidents and assist with any evacuation efforts of the island during coastal storms.”
The application stated that talks were held in March 2007 among town, county and National Wildlife Refuge officials to discuss bicycle access between Assateague beach, the town of Chincoteague and the NASA visitor center. The causeway was identified as one of the most important links in the proposed system.
The project also is part of the adopted Eastern Shore of Virginia Bicycle Plan.
Nineteen accidents have happened since 2004 along the causeway — the section of Route 175 extending from the east entrance of NASA/NOAA to Chincoteague’s corporate limits — according to VDOT statistics.
But a recent VDOT safety audit of the Queens Sound area where the August accident occurred concluded that the area has below statewide average rates for crashes, injuries and fatalities on two-lane primary roads, and identified driver error as the contributing factor to the three accidents that have happened there since Jan. 1, 2005. The results were reported in a Nov. 15 memo to Accomack County Administrator Steve Miner.
Of the grant proposal, Bounds said Thursday, “I don’t see how they can vote it down. The shoulders don’t just help Chincoteague; they help everyone.”
She said she would continue her efforts, vowing, “I’m going to keep going until they listen.”
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