Sept. 4, 2002
Susan Pavek has lived on Bennett Road for 15 years and she has never let her 9-year-old son, Gregory, pick up the mail from their mailbox across the street. Her husband, Gary, is a jogger, but even he has to find another street for his daily exercise.
"Bennett Road is not a safe road to bike, walk, jog or even drive for that matter. There's not even a shoulder," Pavek said. "The traffic in terms of the visibility, the reckless driving and the speed is so bad, and it just keeps getting worse, that I never feel safe with my son in our driveway. "
Pavek was one of about 75 Oak Hill-area residents who came to Navy Elementary on Wednesday night to discuss Bennett Road safety issues with state and county officials. The meeting gave disgruntled residents the chance to voice their concerns about a stretch of road that they say is unnecessarily dangerous and deadly, and has been for a long time.
Responding to an outpouring of anger and emotion after a crash earlier this month that killed one teenager, Supervisor Michael Frey (R-Sully) and Del. Gary Reese (R-67th) organized the meeting with members of the Virginia Department of Transportation, and Fairfax County Police to discuss potential changes to the road between the West Ox and Fox Mill intersections. In addition, they explored possible solutions to, what neighbors say is the decades-old problem of hill-jumping near the blind-intersection of Bennett Road and Rayjohn Lane.
While officials promised to explore solutions, residents who showed up on Wednesday night last week demanding immediate action left unsatisfied.
"We are here tonight to see what we can do to make Bennett Road safer for us and our kids," said Reese, who lives on Bennett near the site of the accident.
<b>WHILE ENCOURAGED</b> by the turnout, Judy Ondrekjko, who has lived on Rayjohn Lane with her husband Joseph since 1976, said she is only "cautiously optimistic" that government and public safety officials will provide her neighborhood with the solutions she thinks it needs.
Frye said there were short- and long-term possible solutions and added that county and state officials have been working on this problem since the day of the accident. "Bennett Road has other hills," he added, "and just taking care of one hill won't fix the problem."
According to a recent VDOT survey, this portion of Bennett Road gets more than 4,000 cars in a 24-hour period. Reese said he could remember when Bennett Road was a sparsely used stretch of road. "Maybe we would see one car an hour back then," he said. "We've seen our community change and we've seen Bennett Road change, but the one constant has been the tremendous increase in traffic."
While VDOT officials reported that there have been six accidents since 1998 near the site of this month's deadly accident, residents, many of whom have unsuccessfully petitioned the state to cut down the hill, insist that the number is much higher. "We've been very lucky," Reese said, echoing the sentiments of many in the audience. "We have all heard that familiar screech of the tires and the bottoming out of the vehicles as they fly over the hills."
Tom Farley, a VDOT administrator, warned the crowd that there were few, if any, quick fixes to the problem.
William Harrell, an assistant district traffic engineer with the county board of transportation, said his office would install new fluorescent school bus signs along the route in a matter of weeks. While grateful, few in the audience seemed to express confidence that new signs would slow the spate of reckless driving they say plagues this section of Bennett Road.
"It's going to have to be a collaborative effort," Farley said. "We are going to have to work with you the community and the people who travel through the community in terms of trying to get them to exercise good operating judgment as they drive along Bennett Road."
<b>FARLEY STRESSED</b> that there wasn't much his department could do in terms of additional signage and he reiterated his point that any solution to the problems along Bennett Road could not be agreed upon at one public meeting. "As you know when you read the paper everyday, these things aren't fast and they can't just happen," he said. "They take several years in terms of getting the community consensus, the design and the ultimate construction and funding. So we start today and tonight is a good beginning."
Like many speakers Wednesday night, John Williams, had pointed words for the authorities. "Delegate Reese says he has been working on this problem for 10 years, Supervisor Frye for five. What do we expect from our representatives? You have been working a combined 15 years and for what?" asked Williams, who lives on Pine Oaks Way. "The problem is we haven't taken an aggressive attitude. Nobody has done anything."
Other neighbors were clearly frustrated with the problem and they came to the meeting to share their frustrations. Diane Novick, who lives on Bennett Farms Court, summed up the feelings of many in attendance on Wednesday night. "Why do we have to do this retroactively? Why do we have to wait until tragedy happens? Why do we have to wait for a death before we come together to discuss a problem that has been around for years?" Novick asked. "From now on, when there are warnings, start investigating right away. There were red flags here and no one did anything. Don't wait."
Andrejko said drivers, especially teenagers, have been hill jumping and speeding down Bennett Road since the 1970s. One Sunday morning around 10, Andrejko was returning home from church when she said two girls came "flying" over the hill towards her car, barely avoiding it. "I thought I was going to meet my maker," she said. "It can be a lot worse and one day, it will."
Gisela Bennie, who lives on nearby Leaf Fields Road, is the step-mother of a teenage son who, she says, flipped his car along Bennett Road. The road has earned a reputation among area high school age thrillseekers for its long stretches of hills perfect for hill jumping. An area resident for 27-years, Bennie understands young drivers' fascination with hills and speed. "It's like a roller coaster," she said. "It is a bit of a thrill so I can understand why teenagers would want to do it. Those hills can be fun, but clearly something needs to be done."
Like Andrejko, Jim Nass, thinks another fatal accident is not a matter of if, but when. "We are going to have a major catastrophe maybe tomorrow, maybe next week or maybe next year, but there will be another one," he said. "If we don't fix this problem, somebody sitting here tonight is going to be dead."
Aaron Rosenbaum couldn't agree more. Rosenbaum, who lives on Upper Wynnewood Place and drove by the fatal accident less than five minutes after it occured, believes it's only a matter of time before it happens again. "There exists a certain kind of infamy with this intersection," he said. "Now it's like 'dead-man's hill.' We are going to have kids from all over Fairfax and Loudoun counties to come and try this hill. It's a real demolition derby."