Busy interstate poses problems
for area rescue workers

Rockbridge County’s stretch of the road sees deadly accidents and hazmat spills on a regular basis

By J. Elliott Walker

In the past three years, 613 accidents were reported along the roughly 32 miles of Interstate 81 in Rockbridge County, an average of more than one accident every other day. Every other accident, on average, resulted in injury -- 311 people, about one every three and a half days. Five people died, one for every six miles of interstate in the county, according to statistics from the Virginia Department of Transportation.

"In Rockbridge County, from the 170 [mile marker] to the 205 [mile marker] ... that is the most dangerous stretch of I-81," said Damon Woody, former captain of the Glasgow Rescue Squad.

The road presents more than one problem. In addition to concerns about injuries and fatalities stemming from accidents, local rescue workers must also worry about trucks transporting hazardous materials.

Robert Foresman, coordinator of emergency management for Rockbridge County, said one of his biggest concerns is one of the trucks turning over and spilling dangerous materials onto the roadway.

"These tankers are carrying anything from milk and glue all the way up to your very caustic acids, which causes potential health problems," Foresman said. 

On May 23, a truck from the Rockbridge Farmers Cooperative spilled about 400 gallons of the herbicide Roundup and another herbicide into a local creek that feeds a tributary of the Maury River, The News-Gazette reported. No injuries were immediately reported, but according to The News-Gazette the U.S. Department of Agriculture was running tests on the body of a calf that was found dead three days later on a nearby farm. The Co-Op truck had not been on Interstate 81.

Local rescue and hospital workers know the dangers associated with I-81 and rate it one of the biggest threats for the county. Rescue workers train for highway disasters, and Carilion Stonewall Jackson Hospital’s disaster plan addresses how the hospital would deal with a massive emergency with injuries.

Carilion Stonewall Jackson is the only hospital in Rockbridge County. It is classified as critical access, meaning it does not have the capability to deal with the most serious of injuries.

"Because we’re a community hospital, we don’t have trauma facilities, we don’t have trauma surgeons, we don’t have a blood bank that can support huge traumas," said Dr. Colleen Arnold, an emergency room physician with the hospital.

By definition, critical access hospitals are those in rural areas. They are required to provide emergency service 24 hours a day, seven days a week and must be staffed by at least one physician. That doctor, however, does not have to be on-site at all times.

Stonewall Jackson always has a physician and team of nurses on-site, and Arnold said additional doctors are fairly easy to reach in an emergency because of phone trees within the hospital.

Critical access hospitals are also small, and typically more than 35 miles from the next-nearest hospital.
Stonewall Jackson is within an hour’s drive of two trauma one hospitals, the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville and the Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital. Trauma one hospitals are required to provide treatment for any kind of injury or medical emergency.

Vicki Pickle is responsible for making sure the hospital is ready to respond to emergencies,  from accidents on the road to pandemic breakouts of contagious illnesses.

"I think we’re as prepared as we can be," she said. "We’re constantly coming up with new ideas and new ways that we can be better prepared."

"This was life"

The morning of January 3, 1999 would change Woody’s life forever. At the time he was still captain of Glasgow's rescue squad. He was still in bed when he got a call about a wreck on I-81.

"It was icy. It had been raining the night before, and then it had dropped below freezing, so everything was a nice little thin glaze," he said of the road conditions.

Sixteen vehicles were involved in the early morning accident on Jan. 3, 1999 (Photo courtesy of Damon Woody)

What started as a fender bender at the I-81 bridge over Buffalo Creek quickly turned into a massive 16 vehicle pile-up, involving eight cars and eight tractor trailers. The chain reaction started when a truck slid down the ice, lost control and jack-knifed. It hit the four cars involved in the fender bender, including a state police car, before coming to a halt. The truck driver was killed instantly.

The accident  dominoed after that.  

"[It looked like] the junkyard had been dumped on I-81," said Woody. "I’d never seen a wreck like this before in 15 years of rescue. Never. And it can happen just like that."

Four people died in the accident that day, but it could have been worse. Woody said the 100 rescue workers, including members from Buena Vista, Lexington, Natural Bridge and Glasgow fire and rescue departments, state police, wrecking services and hospital workers, saved many more lives.

"I knew the people I had knew what they were doing," Woody said of the team that day. "We had the best in the state, and literally I mean the best in the state, doing this."

Each trauma one hospital has a helicopter that transports the most severely injured straight to its emergency room. On the day of the wreck, the UVa hospital’s helicopter could not fly because of the weather, but Woody said Roanoke’s helicopter arrived at the scene in about 18 minutes.

The hospital crew at Stonewall Jackson was also standing by after they got word of the accident. Pickle said the hospital has plans in place to deal with their "worst nightmare," a pile-up on I-81. Arnold agrees.

"Accidents are probably the biggest concern [for the hospital] because they happen with some frequency," she said.

Pickle said when hospital staff learn of an incident, they focus on trying to clear out bed space for incoming patients. The physical therapy unit can be shut down to accommodate the walking wounded, those patients needing minor medical attention but not a hospital bed. The next concern is getting enough staff to cover the catastrophe.

On that day, Arnold said, she served as the triage coordinator for the hospital, directing patients to treatment based on reports from rescue workers about the severity of their injuries.   

"When there’s that many patients and that many people involved in care, there’s got to be somebody that sort of facilitates it all," she said of her role.

Part of making sure the hospital is always prepared comes from regular training sessions.  Pickle said the hospital does fire drills once a month and performs Code Green drills – focusing on natural disasters -- twice a year.

"It’s an ongoing process," she said. "You may not be prepared for everything, but you’ve got something in place .... You do what you have to do."

On Nov. 3, 2007 the hospital practiced for a pandemic outbreak by giving free flu shots to about 600 people. People could drive up to two tents in the hospital’s parking lot, stick their forearm through their window to get a shot and be on their way in minutes. The purpose of the drill, Pickle said, was to see how quickly her team could inoculate people. Within the day, all of the doses were gone.

For their work on Jan. 3, 1999,  Woody and his team won the call of the year from the Virginia Association of Volunteer Rescue Squads. He accepted the award on behalf of all the workers in Rockbridge County who helped that day.

"[Rockbridge County has] all the best resources," Woody said. "This county is actually very fortunate with what they have."

"There are so many different possibilities"

Havoc struck again on I-81 in February 2001, in almost the same spot where the 1999 accident took place. This time, though, it was in the southbound lanes.

More than 20 cars collided in snowy conditions. This time no one died, but 91 barrels of toxic waste spilled onto the highway, and a truck carrying Canadian whiskey burst into flames. 

Hazmat teams from Roanoke and Concord, N.C. were called in to clean up the mess, but no serious injuries were reported. Rockbridge County fire and rescue workers receive training in containing but not in cleaning up hazardous materials, and the county uses a hazardous material clean-up company called Enviro-Clean.  Foresman also serves as the hazardous materials coordinator for the county. 

The U.S. Department of Transportation keeps track of highway hazmat incidents. Last year, Virginia reported 207 hazmat incidents. No one died in those incidents, and only one person was treated outside of a hospital. In the first quarter of 2008, 31 incidents have been reported, with damage reaching more than $700,000.            

The 2001 wreck involved more than 20 cars. (Photo courtesy of The News-Gazette)

Stonewall Jackson practices for hazardous materials incidents, but Arnold said dealing with hazmat emergencies can be stressful.

"There are so many different possibilities that I don’t think anybody knows," she said. Doctors do not learn how to handle all types of hazmat situations, said Arnold. When a situation arises, doctors must consult handbooks on how to proceed safely and to assess risk.   

Pickle said hospital workers have a decontamination shower they can use if they have come into contact with hazardous material. They have hazmat suits that can be worn, too.  If workers are handling a hazmat patient, the patient would be put through the decontamination shower before coming into the emergency room.

Volunteer fire and rescue workers also go through training to deal with hazmat emergencies.

"You never know what’s there," said Joseph Bahaur, a volunteer with the South River Fire Department.

Trucks must identify what hazardous materials they are carrying with placards on their sides, and rescue workers must learn what those mean. In addition, they practice how to go through a nine-step decontamination process in case they come into contact with the material.

"It’s a lot of stuff to remember," said Bahaur.

Arnold said the hospital updates its disaster plan regularly, but that emergencies don’t always go according to plan.

"I think the biggest thing is to make sure there is flexibility in the plan," she said. "You know, to make sure that [the plan] can adapt and change a little bit depending on the circumstance of each individual disaster."