Posted on 10/12/2005 9:44:06 PM PDT by Travis McGee
By BILL BURKE, The Virginian-Pilot © October 10, 2005
The Ford Escort was racing north on rural Seaside Road, its occupants headed home from a wedding, when it ran a stop sign at 55 mph.
The driver of a Ford F-150 traveling east through the intersection never saw the Escort, police said.
The T-bone crash killed the driver of the Escort, Rene Leyva-Perez, and 4-year-old Daniel Salazar, who was in the back seat. Daniel’s pregnant mother, Marina Salazar, and the driver of the pickup were injured.
When police arrived, they discovered that Leyva-Perez had no auto insurance or driver’s license – only a laminated ID card issued by the tomato-packing plant where he worked – and that the car was registered to a woman in Chesapeake and had Michigan plates.
In the Escort’s wreckage, they found empty cans of Modelo Especial – acclaimed in Mexico as “the elite of beers.”
That violent collision nine days ago, on an unlit stretch of Accomack County blacktop, is the latest example of a deadly trend:
Since 2002, more than 90 people have been injured and 18 killed on the Eastern Shore in accidents involving Hispanic workers driving rogue vehicles.
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.
Tennessee plates
The state of Tennessee appears to be an enabler for many of the illegal drivers.
Up and down the Eastern Shore, in the work camps and housing complexes where migrants and year-round laborers live, Tennessee plates abound. Eastern Shore law enforcers suspect there is a flourishing black market for Tennessee tags.
There has been speculation of a mail-order operation, but postmasters say they cannot discuss the nature of their mail. Officials for the State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation would not say if they are looking into the Tennessee tag issue.
Tennessee’s titling and registration regulations are among the most lax in the nation. Several migrants interviewed recently said they got Tennessee tags because they were turned down by Virginia’s Department of Motor Vehicles.
Tennessee does not require identification or proof of insurance when a vehicle is titled and plates are issued, as long as the motorist pays cash. Most states require identification or proof of insurance; Virginia requires both.
Tennessee state Sen. Bill Ketron said his state’s legislature has failed to close the loophole because of pressure from the powerful auto insurance industry, which he says “wants to be able to cherry-pick who they sell to,” rather than being forced to insure high-risk drivers. He plans to introduce a bill during the next legislative session, which begins in January, that would toughen titling and registration requirements.
The problem also has come to the attention of Virginia’s Migrant and Seasonal Farm Workers Advisory Board. The Tennessee license plate matter is “a political hot potato,” said Kenneth E. Annis of Exmore, chairman of the 15-member board.
Annis promised that it will be addressed at the board’s next meeting. The board, which meets four times a year, can recommend changes to the governor or the General Assembly.
Other regions with significant Hispanic populations, such as Rockingham County in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley and the Greensboro/Winston-Salem area of North Carolina, have not seen significant numbers of cars with Tennessee tags, say law enforcement officials there.
But on the Eastern Shore, “Somebody is making it very easy for these drivers to get Tennessee tags,” Annis said. “It’s all very fishy.”
And deadly. In the 13 fatal accidents since 2002 involving Hispanic workers, six vehicles bore Tennessee tags.
Many of the Tennessee plates on the Shore were issued in Union County, in the eastern part of the state near the Virginia border – about a nine-hour drive from the Shore.
Jim Houston, county clerk for Union County, said Tennessee officials are aware of the problem. Houston said his office sees “quite a few” Hispanics registering vehicles, “and I think the number’s increasing.”
When the topic of migrants titling vehicles came up at a recent meeting of Tennessee clerks, Houston said, “One of the other clerks said, 'Lord, we’re overrun with them.’”
Rogue vehicles driven by unlicensed drivers have been responsible for a string of deadly accidents on the Eastern Shore. Two people were killed and two injured when this Ford Escort driven by a Hispanic farm worker ran a stop sign Oct. 1 in Accomack County. VIRGINIA STATE POLICE PHOTOS
Sorry to hear about your wife's Aunt. I offer my prayers for her Grace and your comfort.
--At 12:23 a.m., an officer flagged a Nissan pickup with Alabama tags and a black crouching tiger painted on the driver’s-side door. Two Hispanic men wearing white T-shirts got out. The driver had no license or ID.
The men became agitated as they milled around. When a tow truck arrived to haul away the pickup, one of the men began shouting “Discrimination! Discrimination!” ----
Well, at least they've learned that much!
This is have zero respect for politicians who want to make excuses for illegal aliens. They whitewash everything with the "just good honest folk doing the jobs ordinary americans won't do" - BS - you don't know who is coming in, and innocent people all over the country are being killed by them.
Arkansas's Gov Huckabee likes to think he's going to run for president in 2008, but he's not going to get anywhere with his pro-illegal stance.
Martha was my Aunt and thank you for the prayers.AWB
Good friend of mine had his car destroyed by a gardener truck in California. The onwer of the company was in the truck at the time, thankfully, but the Mexican still split before things could go to trial.
Something really needs to be done about this crap.
You are welcome.
What a tagline!
My college girl friend's sister was killed by an American citizen caucasian drunk driver. He had already had his license revoked due to 4 previous dui's. He also died in the accident, a head on collision where he crossed the center line.
ping
I am sorry to hear of your family's loss.
I'm not trying to dowmplay the seriousness of violating traffic laws or the deaths of innocent people involved, but there's another issue here that isn't being addressed in strong enough terms:
THANK YOU, PRESIDENT BUSH for ignoring our borders & letting illegals run wild across this country. You have a minor role in these killings by your refusal to enforce our immigration laws--it's time for Congress to write Articles of Impeachment for your not doing your consitutional duties, eroding US sovereignty, & cowtowing to President Vicente Fox like you have been doing throughout your entire Presidency. SHAME ON YOU!
What's your point?
That DUI convicts are treated as favorably as illegals? True enough.
We see incidents like this every day here in Arizona too.. illegals causing accidents and running, committing crimes and running across the border to avoid prosecution, and draining the social welfare system like our hospitals...(don't get me started on that.)
Illegal immigration is not a victimless crime it is destroying America. Please understand I do not wish to stop immigration. Being the Grandson of an Irish Immigrant that came here in the early 1900's Immigration is responsible for me being here. My grandfather came over legally though. Illegal immigration has to be stopped. If it means a wall so be it...If we do not address this issue it will change the face of this nation as we know it...
I apologize for the rant all, but I had to get it out.
That's bad.
But the point is these people shouldn't even be here in the first place, and they are causing devasting loss of innocent lives.
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