By Candace Rondeaux
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, December 10, 2006

The small spray of carnations and daisies could barely be seen from the road. Dozens of trucks and cars roared by the tiny sign that read, "Dustin & Courtney, We love you and we'll miss you."

But days after two Frederick teenagers were killed in a traffic accident on a busy stretch of Route 15 in central Loudoun County, the roadside memorial was a sign to some people of the dangers along that roadway, and the deaths have prompted a call from one public official for safety improvements.

Dustin Muse, 16, was driving south on Route 15 with his sister, Courtney, 13, in their father's 2000 Jeep Wrangler about 6 p.m. on Wednesday when the vehicle veered off the road near the split between the Route 15/Route 7 Bypass and Business Route 15, just outside Leesburg. The two were killed almost instantly after the soft-top Jeep plowed down a steep embankment and crashed into two trees, said Loudoun County sheriff's spokesman Kraig Troxell.

The sheriff's office was investigating the accident, but it was uncertain Friday whether a cause would be determined soon. Troxell said that alcohol and speed did not appear to be factors.

"It's possible that we may never know the cause of the accident," he said.

But after two other traffic fatalities near the same stretch of Route 15 this year -- and a total of five fatal accidents this year on Route 15 countywide -- some in Loudoun said Friday that it is time to look at how to prevent another serious accident there.

Leesburg Town Council member Kenneth D. Reid said he planned to propose a resolution recommending that the Virginia Department of Transportation consider implementing several safety upgrades at the bypass and along Route 15. Reid said the recent population boom in Loudoun had pushed the narrow two-lane country road to its limits and had made the bypass split especially dangerous.

"During rush hour the traffic there is horrendous. You have to stop, and you have to wait for this long line of cars coming from the north," Reid said, referring to the predicament of northbound drivers. "If you're coming in rush hour, I just can't see how you get through there without speeding. You're going to plow through that intersection."

Reid said he planned to ask the Town Council to consider asking VDOT to use reflective paint to mark lines on the road and to install guardrails and place additional lighting near the stretch where the accident happened and in other areas along Route 15. Shoulders along some sections of the winding road are less than five feet wide, and some are unpaved. In some spots, there is no shoulder.

The council is expected to discuss the proposal at a meeting tomorrow and could vote on it as early as Tuesday, Reid said.

VDOT officials said Friday they had already begun reviewing conditions along the road after receiving a letter in October from Reid asking the agency to look into safety measures. VDOT engineer Jim Zeller said he planned to study traffic volume and possible changes that might affect motorists in the coming weeks.

Two VDOT workers were already at the bypass split Friday morning, inspecting the trail of splintered trees left after the accident.

"You have to be careful and think: The measures that you're putting up -- will they really address the operational things that are going on out there?" Zeller said. "You have to look at the accident and decide, was that just an isolated tragedy or part of a pattern where guardrails or lighting or painting the road might help make it safer?"

When it was constructed in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Route 15 stretched through largely rural rolling hills north toward the Maryland state line. Decades later, the road itself remains unchanged, but rapid growth has made the surrounding countryside almost unrecognizable and has increased traffic.

In 1995, about 10,000 vehicles a day traveled along the 10-mile stretch of Route 15 from the bypass to the Maryland line. Last year, a little more than twice that many vehicles a day traveled along just the 5.5-mile section of the road between the bypass and Lucketts Road, according to VDOT data.

"You have the potential for fender benders. You have bumper-to-bumper traffic every day, and all of the traffic is coming south from Maryland in the morning and going north in the evening," Reid said.

Zeller agreed that Route 15 has far more traffic than the road was designed to handle. He said that although VDOT had recently painted new lines near the bypass split indicating the direction of the bypass turnoff, last week's fatal accident was a sign that safety issues at that spot still needed to be studied.

"People weren't paying attention, and they discovered that they needed to be in the right lane, so they would be like, 'Oh, my gosh, I got to get over,' and then would jerk the wheel and bad things would happen," he said.

It was unclear Friday whether Dustin, who got his driver's license in March, found himself in such a situation as he approached the bypass split, moments before the accident. Witnesses said he appeared to be driving at the posted speed limit of 45 mph.

"It's just tragic what happened there," Reid said.