Draper Road and Blacksburg Drama

Apparently this is what I miss when I go away for the weekend. Now I know my neighbors names :)

Blacksburg crash stirs traffic spat

By Tonia Moxley
The New River Valley Current

BLACKSBURG - Angela Bookout knew something was wrong Saturday night at 10:35 p.m. when she heard a car revving its engine and speeding the wrong way up the Draper Road extension.

Seconds later, a spectacular impact shook the neighborhood as the car, driven by a 19-year-old man from Vienna, hit a utility pole, two houses and two parked cars and ruptured a natural gas line, police said. Just up the street, Bookout was so startled by the noise that "I went out the window," she said. And looking toward the neighbors, she said she saw partygoers "scatter like roaches."

The accident prompted police to suggest that some residents leave their houses until the gas leak was fixed. The crash also reignited a dispute between the Miller-Southside Neighborhood Alliance and town officials about traffic concerns on Draper Road.

According to police, the crash happened like this:

Ryan E. Melissinos was attending a birthday party at a rental house at 1005 Draper Road when another partygoer asked him to move his car. Melissinos backed his 2004 Infiniti out of the driveway and drove a few hundred feet down the one-way street. He turned around at the Children's Nest child care center.

Then Melissinos headed back to the party, driving in the wrong direction at nearly 80 mph, according to a statement given to police by 18-year-old Nathaniel J. Mallory, who said he was a passenger in the car.

As the car raced toward a house at 1009 Draper Road, next door to the party, Melissinos lost control. The vehicle careened through the yard, ripped the handrails out of the front stoop, collided with the corner of the house and tore off a gas meter.

The car then went airborne across the driveway - clearing a flower garden without damaging it - ripped out a laurel bush and deposited it on the lawn at 1005 Draper Road. The car struck the side of that house and stopped.

Along the way, Melissinos hit two parked cars and a utility pole, snapping all four of its steel support cables, police said. Melissinos' blood alcohol level measured 0.12, one and a half times the legal limit, according to Police Chief Bill Brown.

Steve and Tina Lee stepped out of their house at 1013 Draper Road after the crash and said they could hear gas escaping from the ruptured line. Tina Lee likened the sound of the escaping gas to the sound made by the 66-foot Cascades waterfall in Giles County.

On the advice of police, the couple took their two young children to Wal-Mart while firefighters and utility workers capped the gas leak. Police cleared the Lees to return home at 1:30 a.m., Steve Lee said.

Melissinos, who is not a local student or resident, was not injured in the crash, but Mallory bruised his knee, police said. Anne Pandapas, the elderly owner of the house at 1009, was not at home when the crash occurred and could not be reached for comment Tuesday. Melissinos was arrested, charged with driving under the influence and held at the Blacksburg jail until Sunday, when police released him on a $1,000 unsecured bond.

Police estimate the crash caused $55,000 in property damage, and the investigation is ongoing.

Chuck Hoover, president of the Miller-Southside Neighborhood Alliance, fired off an angry e-mail Sunday to Mayor Roger Hedgepeth and copied to The Roanoke Times and others. It accused town government of ignoring traffic problems in the neighborhood.

"We've had neighbors hit, pets killed, parked cars totaled, property damaged and now houses hit and neighbors evacuated in the middle of the night because of our continuing traffic problems," Hoover wrote. "If you are not up to the task I suggest that you step down and let someone else address the situation."

Hedgepeth responded in an e-mail Tuesday. He emphasized his commitment to citizen safety and pointed out that the accident was an essentially random act by a driver who made "very, very stupid and dangerous" decisions.

"Your linkage of this regrettable accident to a breakdown in the performance of the Town Council and Town Staff or to my leadership abilities is totally bizarre," Hedgepeth wrote.

In a telephone interview Monday, Hoover said the 200-plus-member alliance is frustrated because it has worked with town government through Blacksburg's Neighborhood Traffic Control Program to find solutions to speeding and cut-through traffic on and around Draper Road but seen no action from town officials.

In 2002, town officials hired two consultants to study traffic patterns in the neighborhood. The study calculated the average speed of traffic at 29 miles per hour and concluded that speeding was not a big problem, town spokeswoman Heather Browning said.

But the study did confirm a high rate of traffic cutting through the residential area to avoid congestion on Main Street.

After several meetings with council and residents, the alliance twice drafted a list of measures to discourage drivers from cutting through the neighborhood but couldn't get the 67 percent agreement among neighborhood residents that the town requires to go forward, Browning said.

The alliance has requested another meeting with town council on the issue.