Since 2002, more than 90 people have been injured and 18 killed on the Eastern Shore in accidents involving Hispanic workers driving rogue vehicles

Bill Burke:

The fatalities represent about one-fourth of the 71 highway deaths on the Eastern Shore in that period, even though the year-round Hispanic population makes up only 5 percent of the region’s 51,000 residents. Those numbers swell during tomato-picking season, from July through early November, when most of the fatalities occurred.

Accidents like the one on Oct. 1 have helped make the 77-mile stretch of U.S. 13 from the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel to the Maryland state line one of the most treacherous highways in Virginia. In 2003, the fatality rate – deaths per miles driven – on that span of U.S. 13 was more than four times the rates on Interstates 64, 81 and 95 in Virginia.

In all but three of the fatal accidents in which Hispanics were at the wheel, the drivers had no insurance. In most cases, the vehicles had no inspection stickers, the drivers carried no license and alcohol was a factor. The vast majority of the victims in the fatalities were Hispanic.

A review of State Police auto accident reports for 2002 through 2004 on the Eastern Shore also revealed that of the 179 accidents involving Hispanic laborers:

Three-fourths of the drivers had no auto insurance – more than four times the national rate for uninsured motorists.

Nearly all of the vehicles driven by migrants and other laborers were registered to other drivers.

Ninety-three percent of the vehicles had out-of-state tags – most of them from Tennessee.

The number of injuries per accident was about 50 percent higher than the statewide average.

The troopers patrolling U.S. 13, a busy artery connecting Hampton Roads to the populous Northeast, are frustrated by the pattern of lawlessness and mayhem.

Only 10 troopers are assigned to the highways that crisscross the Eastern Shore’s 263 square miles – and on some shifts there is only one trooper on duty for each of the Shore’s two counties. First Sgt. J.P. Koushel, who oversees the Shore’s troopers, said his unit is “tremendously understaffed” and that he has requested additional manpower.

“Right now we’re just running from call to call,” Koushel said. “We can’t even be pro active anymore.”

Koushel said most of the vehicles involved in accidents that kill and injure fail to meet Virginia highway safety standards. He called it “a mockery” of the state’s vehicle registration law.

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