Sheriff Branch OK after Bus. 29 crash
Published: January 8, 2010
Updated: January 9, 2010
No one was injured and no charges were filed in a two-car accident involving the sheriff Monday afternoon in the town of Culpeper.
Culpeper County Sheriff Jim Branch, 55, and motorist Garland Gene Shortridge, 55, crashed around 4:35 p.m. at the intersection of Bus. 29 and Belle Avenue.
At the time, Branch was responding to assist town police on a call, according to town spokesman Wally Bunker.
The sheriff was driving his 2009 Ford unmarked vehicle with its emergency lights flashing when the accident occurred.
Shortridge, driving a 2001 Chevy Impala, was northbound in the left turn lane on Bus. 29 making a left onto Belle Avenue. The sheriff was also making a left onto Belle Avenue behind a town police vehicle that had cleared the intersection before the accident.
Branch was traveling around 20 miles per hour, according to Bunker, and Shortridge was travelling about 5 miles per hour.
Airbags did not deploy in either car and both drivers were wearing seatbelts.
Police estimated damage to the driver’s side and passenger’s side doors of Branch’s car at $1,500.
The Impala sustained about $1,800 in damage to the right front quarter panel and grill.
Through sheriff’s office spokeswoman Corey Byers, Branch said Friday afternoon that he had no comment on the matter at this time.
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I would make a guess that most two car accidents happen in intersections.
Lately I have noticed that in those “unmarked” cars the blue emergency lights are not always as visible as one would think or hope. Especially if they are the new kind of lights; LEDs. The newer lights and lightbars are very thin and small, disguised as much as possible to make sure the car is “unmarked and unidentifiable” by other drivers, you and me. That revenue raised using those unmarked cars is needed so much that regular drivers identifying police cars might actually lower the amount of revenue the police collect around the nation, especially here in Virginia. The State, County and Town police in Virginia are the most effective revenue collectors since real estate and personal property tax collectors. That is their primary job out there on the street. Collect revenue for State, County and Local governments. But I’m not telling you anything you don’t know.
I have also seen and heard regular, non-emergency, people involved in accidents say they had their turning signal on when, in actuality, they didn’t have them on. It might be possible that the Sheriff might have thought his blue lights were flashing. We’ll never know. There are no “black boxes” in police cars yet, as far as I know. Was the Sheriff preoccupied with the radio? We all know, by the latest research, that using cell phones is as distracting as having a blood alcohol level as high as .08, at which a driver is legally DUI. Are officers operating an automobile in an emergency situation and using a radio as distracted as a regular driver using a cell phone or texting? That might be possible and I would like to see any statistics showing some results of that. I have my opinion, but I need not add that into this conversation. Was Mr. Shortridge using a cell phone at the time? Both of those questions could be answered easily.
Don’t misunderstand me, I just have questions. I am not assigning blame to anyone. I am just thankful no one was injured. Many times emergency vehicles are involved in fatal crashes when they are responding to 911 calls or chasing some knuckle-headed drunk driver.
In The Lake of the Woods last year, a female officer was killed, in a single car fatality, as she was driving at a high rate of speed, in a 25mph speed limit area, to scare some skateboarders away from the parking lot in front of the local Bloom grocery store, as was reported in the Star Exponent. Unfortunately the crime didn’t rate excessive speed, but the officers judgement was clouded by the jolt of adrenalin she felt responding to a possible minor civil offense, “no skateboarding on the sidewalks”. She was asked by the Sheriff’s Office only to observe the skateboarders.
We must all be more diligent in our driving and keep our eyes on the road and try not to be distracted, by cell phones, radios or adrenalin. Emergency personnel and regular drivers, young and old. It might be your revenue collected at the minimum, or you might lose something more valuble to your survivors and loved ones.
babygirl, the Sheriff may have THOUGHT it was safe to go through the intersection but obviously it was not. Now, let’s revisit that part about people talking about things they know nothing about, but let’s use you as the example.
You might also look up the law about yielding to an emergency vehicle and what that actually entails.
Why do people talk about things they have no clue about?? First off the sheriff was not going fast through the intersection. We all drive everyday and have close calls with complete idiots who do not pay attention to traffic around them. So why is no blame being placed on the other driver?? I drive over and hour to work three days a week down 29 and I can tell you all my close call accidents have involved regular citizens not paying attention to what’s around them. And from posts on this website I know you blame people if they are in accidents for being on the cell phone!! I have never had a close call with a police vehicle!! And for the comment about the fire truck on lover’s lane the vehicle did not have it’s emergency lights on and was stopped in the middle of the road in the dark, not in an intersection. It had plenty of safe room to pull of to the side!! No flares and no emergency lights! The sheriff obviously thought the intersection was safe when he entered it, but it is impossible to read everybody’s mind at an intersection. This guy did not yield to an emergency vehicle have you heard of that law. He lucked out because he could have easily been written a ticket. Accidents happen get over it.
Just because I am curious and don’t know the details of the firetruck/car accident, I have a couple of questions.
Was the driver of the car limited in visibility due to weather or winding road? (When I lived there Lovers Lane was not the best.) Did the firetruck stop completely and could not be moved? Were flares put out as a warning to oncoming traffic? As I said, just curious.
Good question,gilligan..Do you think you’ll ever get an answer?
Could it be because you ain’t supposed to just stop in the middle of the road? Was there no place to pull over? Only the girl was an idiot?
El Debinbble, no, it is absolutely for ANY emergency vehicle to enter an intersection flashing lights or not when it is unsafe. It ALWAYS results in a ticket for a firefighter or EMS volunteer or professional, apparently not so with Sherriff Branch.
One question. First, glad no one was hurt. Why is it that a firefighter or EMS worker would be cited in such a case and not the Sherriff? In fact, recently a REVA Volunteer Firefighter was sighted when he stoped his engine on Lover’s Lane, all lights flashing due to a possible emergency that needed to be investigated when they heard something come loose on their engine. So he stops, again, all lights lashing, and an idiot girl runs into the back of a full lit up engine after they had already been stoped for a bit. Was she sighted, NOPE, was the firefighter cited, oh yeah, with a misdemeanor violation for doing due dillagence in trying to prevent others from harm. Sure seems like a bunch of playing favorites here. I understand that the family of the girl may have connections at CCSD. Could that be the case that she wasn’t sited? Just askin’.....
Are you allowed to proceed through an intersection even with flashing lights on if it is not safe to do so?
What a shame..Probably the most police work the Sheriff has done in a long time.
At least no one was injured.
Keep up the good work
Tatoo 22
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