Four state police agencies will engage in “Operation Border to Border,” a coordinated traffic safety enforcement initiative targeting approximately 400 miles of U.S. Route 15, a heavily-traveled thoroughfare for summer vacationers and for those attempting to avoid congested interstates serving all four states.
Just as schools let out for the summer on Friday, June 15, 2012, state troopers from Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and North Carolina will carry out ‘Operation Border to Border’ to prevent traffic crashes along the length of U.S. Route 15, which extends through all four jurisdictions. State Police from each of the four agencies will work together, conducting saturation patrols, sobriety check points and other enforcement initiatives to reduce traffic crashes and combat criminal behavior along this major non-interstate highway. The initiative runs June 15, 2012, through Sunday, June 17, 2012.
In Virginia, Route 15 winds its way from Clarksville at the North Carolina border through Virginia to the Maryland border at Loudoun County. The 230 miles of highway alternates between two-lane, rural stretches of road to urban four-lane highways, linking the towns of Clarksville, Farmville, Culpeper, Warrenton and Leesburg. Along the entire stretch of Virginia’s Route 15 last year, there were 318 total traffic crashes.
Statistics show that 50 percent of all crashes occurring on Route 15 in 2011 occurred in Loudoun County. A total of 160 traffic crashes occurred along the approximately 23 miles of highway within Loudoun County last year. Speed was a causative factor in 24 of those 160 crashes. In the first six months of 2012, three people have lost their lives in traffic crashes on Route 15 in Loudoun County.
In 2011, Loudoun County had the most crashes, followed by Prince William County and Fluvanna counties with 31 crashes; Buckingham County with 30 crashes; and Culpeper and Prince Edward counties with 21 crashes. Fauquier County had the least number of crashes with two in 2011.
Speed, fatigue, alcohol, and illegal drugs have been the most common causes of the crashes investigated along the Route 15 corridor within recent years.
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Chris Graham
