Henrico Police launches ‘WOAH!’ traffic safety program

Natalie Rainer’s life changed forever one August morning last year, and she’s determined to do whatever she can to ensure that others don’t suffer the same type of change she did.

Rainer and her friend, Jonah Holland, were cycling on Osborne Turnpike in Varina Aug. 13, 2022, when a vehicle driven by 18-year-old Jeffrey Brooks struck them both. Brooks, police later discovered, was driving under the influence of marijuana and was legally drunk.

When she awakened in a hospital bed at VCU several days later, Rainer found herself intubated, with IVs stuck into both sides of her neck and her wrists restrained.

“My pain was immense,” she recalled last week.

It worsened when family members told her the awful reality: Holland had died.

Rainer spent almost a month in the trauma center at VCU, recovering from various injuries (including a broken pelvis and collarbone), then spent another month in skilled nursing and six months in physical therapy learning to walk again.

“While every day, I continued to suffer pain, scarring and emotional trauma from my injuries, I am the lucky one, because I get to live out the rest of my life,” she said.

Brooks later pleaded guilty to several charges and was sentenced to more than 30 years in jail, though nearly 20 were suspended. He began serving 10 years and one month in jail in October.

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Rainer and Henrico Police officials don’t want to hear more stories like hers. That’s why the division of police last week launched a traffic safety program it has termed WOAH! (Watch Out Ahead Henrico!) to encourage drivers, pedestrians and cyclists alike to be alert and look out for each other.

Last year, eight pedestrians died in crashes with motor vehicles in the county, Henrico Police Lt. Rob Netherland said during a Nov. 22 press conference introducing the program; this year, nine have died that way.

“The campaign is very simple,” Netherland said. “We could probably sum it up also in two words: ‘Pay attention.’”

As part of the effort, anyone can pick up a free neon yellow safety vest (pictured above) from one of the three Henrico Police stations or at various community events in the coming months.

The biggest problem, according to Netherland, is that too many drivers (and some pedestrians and cyclists) are distracted, either by cell phones, earbuds or something else.

Pedestrians who are struck typically are not wearing bright, reflective clothing, he said, and often they’re not crossing roads at designated crosswalks.

Netherland and other police officials hope the campaign will cause everyone who uses the county’s roads to focus.

“The bottom line is we all use the same roadways, and we’ve got to make sure that we’re paying attention,” he said.

Henrico County is working on a number of projects to help makes transportation safer, according to Henrico Public Works Director Terrell Hughes. More than 120 active transportation projects (those geared toward non-motorized forms of movement) are ongoing in the county, he said, with more than two-thirds of them focused solely on sidewalk construction or improvements. The county also is planning to implement sidewalks as part of future projects along West Broad Street, Staples Mill Road, Williamsburg Road, Laburnum Avenue, Parham Road and Patterson Avenue – the county’s major internal thoroughfares.

In addition, Henrico officials have lowered the speed limit on more than 100 roads in the county in the past several years, and they’ve implemented a number of traffic-calming measures, since speed typically is a factor in crashes.

“Once roadway speeds have been lowered, it actually improves the visibility of pedestrians and cyclists along the roadway, as well as it improves the outcome of crashes,” Hughes said.

Henrico’s Comprehensive Plan update will include the first-ever Henrico Bike Plan, and the county has added 14 miles of bike lanes this year alone, Hughes said, with plans to add that many or more next year.

The changes won’t come in time to help Cheyanne Williams, whose father, Alonzo Earl Williams, Sr., died when he was struck by a vehicle on West Broad Street in Short Pump Sept. 11. The driver didn’t stop, and no arrests have been made in the incident.

“We still don’t have answers right now, but we’re leaning on each other,” Williams said during the press conference last week, with tears streaming down her cheeks. “We just ask everyone to be careful, to pay attention, to be aware, wear the vest or just take the time to just be cautious of someone.

“Love on your family, because things can change in the matter of a second. You don’t know if you can change someone’s life or end it.”

Netherland left attendees with a message he hopes will resonate with drivers, pedestrians and cyclists countywide: “Pay attention, slow down, just be cognizant of everything that’s going [on] around you.”