» Sometimes it’s too late before motorists realize they are about to enter another road at full speed.
Culpeper County has its share of tricky back-road intersections, and that includes Gibson Mill at U.S. 522 just west of town.
That became evident Tuesday when a nasty T-bone collision took the life of 43-year-old Culpeper resident Roger Lee Fincham Jr., a passenger in the car of 70-year-old Joanne H. Heinig.
Heinig, northbound on Gibson Mill Road, apparently missed the stop sign and drove straight into the intersection. A large van on U.S. 522 plowed into the vehicle’s right side. It seems to be driver error on Heinig’s part, but the police investigation is ongoing.
Even worse than the Gibson Mill intersection, however, is one just a few miles northwest on U.S. 522, at Norman Road. Having driven that stretch many times ourselves, we know the perils faced by drivers who either aren’t familiar with the intersection’s twisting, blind topography or who simply get distracted and come upon the stop sign too fast.
Yes, a yellow sign warns drivers that a stop sign is “490 feet” away. But even with the warning, the hidden intersection — obscured by a slight hill — has a way of taking you by surprise, often creating a jam-the-brakes emergency response even from people who drive the road on a regular basis.
Another spot that is similarly dangerous is the intersection of Little Fork Church Road and Route 229 in Rixeyville.
Driving west on Little Fork Church Road, the stop sign is hidden behind a clump of trees, and, like Gibson Mill Road, no paint delineates where the intersection begins. To the unsuspecting driver, it appears the road simply curves when, in fact, it is about to hit a major highway where traffic routinely tops 70 mph. It’s amazing more wrecks haven’t occurred there.
Culpeper has a hard-working, responsive district office of the Virginia Department of Transportation. Perhaps VDOT could take proactive measures to make these three intersections safer. Rumble strips, paint and better sign placement come to mind as possible solutions to keep motorists safer on these difficult-to-navigate roadway mergers.
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