February 9, 2010

As Virginia digs out from this latest winter storm, Virginia State Police are already preparing for the next projected storm system. State police had 75 percent of its uniformed workforce responding to the more than 5,000 calls for service around the Commonwealth over the weekend.

State police even extended round-the-clock shifts to ensure maximum coverage to expedite the response to the hundreds of traffic crashes and disabled vehicles.

From 12:01 a.m. Friday through 10 p.m. Sunday, Virginia State Police emergency dispatchers logged at least 5,229 calls for service. Troopers statewide responded to 1,921 traffic crashes and 2,098 disabled vehicles during the three-day period.

The seven State Police Emergency Communications Centers also fielded an additional 4,654 calls from the public for information.

In the Charlottesville and Waynesboro areas, police reported 228 crashed, 133 disabled vehicles, and 493 total calls serviced.

The majority of the crashes involved damaged vehicles only. However, state police did investigate two fatal traffic crashes that claimed three lives during the storm. Investigating troopers determined that weather was a factor in the Wythe County crash on Interstate 81 in which a father and son were killed. Weather was determined not to be a factor in the cause of the crash on Interstate 64 in York County that claimed the life of a New Kent County man.

Click on the attached document for a region-by-region breakdown of calls for service by Virginia State Police during the storm.