Harvest of death on the Eastern Shore (Illegal Alien Drunk Drivers)
Virginian Pilot Online ^ | October 13, 2005 | BILL BURKE
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.’” |
