INVESTIGATION: Student death prompts Stafford teens to fight for road fixes

Susie Webb July 23, 2019 at 11:57pm

STAFFORD — A group of Stafford County high school students is pushing for change after their friend and fellow classmate Helen Wang died in a car crash on the day of her 17th birthday. She was hit and killed while trying to turn onto Kellogg Mill Road, a narrow two-lane road that winds through the heart of the county.

They call themselves Changing Stafford’s Roads [CSR]. They’re credited with convincing local leaders to take action, putting forward to voters a possible $50 million road bond referendum to improve conditions on some of the county’s worst thoroughfares.

It’s an about-face for Stafford County leaders who in February, during a Board of Supervisors retreat at Airlie Conference Center in Warrenton, decided they weren’t going to borrow any new money for road fixes.

The organization consists of about 20 members and divides responsibilities into four committees: County safety and survey, government and legislation, social media and outreach, and prep team.

“Our priority is to make the roads students drive on safe,” said Charlotte Vazquez, member of the County Safety and Survey Committee. “Many kids drive these horrible roads to get to school every morning, increasing their risk to get into an accident every day.”

Since Wang’s death on May 16, CSR students have become outspoken advocates for change, presenting at Board of Supervisors meetings and filling the ordinarily vacant seats with the color yellow, Wang’s favorite.

Under community pressure, the Virginia Department of Transportation [VDOT] and county officials worked quickly after Wang’s death clearing the overgrown brush that is thought to have blocked Wang’s view of the oncoming vehicle that struck hers, as well as paving the entrance to the parking lot she was leaving. The road reopened to traffic on May 30.

Since May, CSR has met with Stafford County Board of Supervisor members Mark Dudenhefer and Tom Coen, county School Board member Holly Hazard, and VDOT representatives to work out and propose their goals and priorities for managing transportation in Stafford County.

“I want to congratulate and thank you guys [CSR students] for coming out and being the conscience of Stafford County as we move forward and work on road improvements that need to be done,” said Dudenhefer at the Board meeting on July 2.

The student organization is currently putting the finishing touches on a new survey of county roads, conducted by the students, that will be released August 6.

“The purpose of the survey is to get a greater understanding of the road conditions in Stafford County and the potential dangers faced by drivers on a daily basis,” said Rebecca Chung, Prep Team Committee member. “We are just trying to connect with the public and allow them to voice their opinions on the roads.”

Stafford County leaders in 2018 commissioned an extensive road survey as well that highlighted the most dangerous and heavily trafficked roads.

“We noticed that the roads that the community deemed most dangerous [from their first survey] weren’t necessarily the roads that the professionals had outlined in their evaluation report,” said Aidan Terlizzi, head of the County Safety and Survey Committee.

Recently Congressman Rob Wittman invited CSR students to meet with him at the U. S. Capitol to discuss their goals and road safety initiatives.

“Meeting with Mr. Wittman allowed us to better understand the more legal issues that come with creating and developing a stable and professional organization,” said Kaitlyn Fulmore, member of the Prep Team Committee.

At the meeting, the students proposed a new law titled Helen Law, one of the organization’s main priorities. This law would give counties the power to remove overgrown vegetation by roads.

Wittman is a federal legislator, so the law would have to be championed by someone in state government.

Under the proposed legislation, “counties would be allowed to hire private contractors to bypass the VDOT waiting times,” said Benjamin Motta, member of the Government and Legislation Committee. “This Helen Law Bill will be up for voting at the General Assembly session this upcoming January.”

VDOT gave a presentation to the Stafford Supervisors on July 2 to address increasing complaints on road safety and maintenance issues.

The number of work orders put into VDOT has greatly increased in recent years: jumping to 5,000 work orders in 2018 from an annual average of 3,000 in years prior to that.

“This is expected, as the number of citizen contacts and service requests we received statewide in 2018 was up 44 percent due to a number of factors, including increased rainfall and the impacts of a number of strong storms,” according to VDOT spokeswoman Kelly Hannon, in documents obtained by Potomac Local in a Freedom of Information Act order.

This year about 2,500 work orders have already been placed into VDOT, yet only 50% of these requests have been fulfilled due to limited staffing and resources; there are only 24 operators who are in charge of maintaining the over 1,600 miles of roads in Stafford.

As for Stafford County’s long-term plans to address transportation issues, the Board passed a resolution requesting the circuit court to order a special election on Nov. 5 to vote on a bond referendum. It’ll be up to voters to authorize county leaders to borrow the money to fix the roads. The efforts of CSR students packing the Board Chambers was key to getting the Board to support the bond.

“When the kids showed up at the meetings demanding change, it was difficult to ignore,” Dudenhefer said.

The Board decided on a $50 million bond amount in order to address the road work projects listed below.

Large Road Construction Projects: