Accidents increase in 2017

Published 1:12 pm Wednesday, January 10, 2018

Lunenburg county saw 135 vehicle accidents in 2017, compared to 117 total accidents in 2016.

Of the accidents, 57 accidents resulted in injury and 78 resulted in property damage.

Unrestrained persons were involved in 14 accidents, speed was related in 41 accidents and distraction was involved in 15 accidents. Young drivers, aged 15-19, were involved in 29 accidents, and mature adults aged 65 or over were involved in 21 accidents. More accidents occurred on Kings Highway with a total of 29 accidents, followed by George Washington Highway with a total of 11 accidents.

According to a previous interview with DMV spokeswoman Brandy Brubaker, the map’s state of current information is dependent on law enforcement agencies from across the state.

“We get our information from law enforcement departments all over the state, so when we get the report from them it’s entered into our system,” Brubaker said. “…Sometimes there’s a lag behind for some of the reports though because maybe an officer is still investigating or hasn’t come back on duty to complete the report and that, in that case, we like to say that 2017 statistics are preliminary until we close out the year.“

Brubaker said the DMV has given the public access to the Traffic Records Electronic Data System (TREDS) since Aug. 2011.

“DMV is Virginia’s repository for Virginia crash reports, and I don’t think a lot of people realize that,” Brubaker said. “Like I said, all the departments from the state send their crash reports to us. …”

The Crash Locations Map can be accessed at: https://www.treds.virginia.gov/Mapping/Map/CrashesByJurisdiction.