Virginia Avenue mom: Slow the traffic down

By Nate Delesline III

Published: July 19, 2008

A year after her daughter was hit by an SUV while riding her bike, Michelle Cagle is still concerned about the traffic in one of Culpeper’s largest and newest neighborhoods.

On July 15, 2007, Mekayla Atterberry suffered a broken leg, facial trauma and a brain injury when a vehicle struck her in front of her house in the 1000 block of Virginia Avenue.

“It’s been a crazy year,” Cagle said of her daughter’s plight. “Physically, she’s done pretty well, except for the brain injury — that will probably be a lifetime battle.”

A casual glance at Mekayla, now 13, reveals nothing amiss. But the weeks and months after the accident left physical scars nevertheless.

The teen will likely need more dental work in years to come to repair destroyed teeth. And constant headaches come and go as a painful reminder of that July evening.

Worst of all, Mekayla said, the emotional scars have taken a toll. The rising eighth-grader, who will attend Culpeper Middle School this fall, said that when she returned to school last year, others — even those who knew what happened — made fun of her looks.

“She’s had a rough year,” her mother said.

Mekayla recalled the summer evening in Redwood Lakes when the accident occurred.

Starting down her driveway on her bike, “I didn’t see anything at first,” she said. “I always look both ways, and I remember looking both ways and I didn’t see any cars.

Then came the collision. Emergency workers rushed her to Culpeper Regional Hospital.

“It started out they thought she was just kind of banged up a little bit,” Cagle said. “They transported her to Culpeper. We were there maybe a half hour and then they realized her brain was bleeding.”

Doctors sent her to the University of Virginia Health System in Charlottesville, where she was hospitalized for five days before leaving in a wheelchair with a broken leg.

“It was the worst night of my life,” Cagle said, adding that her daughter still suffers from constant headaches and will likely have to see a neurologist for the rest of her life.

Another long battle is also under way with insurance companies. Cagle said her daughter’s mangled bicycle remains in the basement. The family has been forced to retain the relic to prove insurance claims.

“It’s taken it’s toll on the whole family,” she said.

Cagle said the driver who hit Mekayla lives nearby. Police have not identified him and following an investigation, he was cleared of any wrongdoing by authorities, town spokesman Wally Bunker said.

“It definitely does bother me,” Cagle said. “I don’t think enough is ever going to be done. We spend a lot of time on the porch and we see people fly by constantly.”

Reports of speeding and reckless driving along Virginia Avenue are nothing new. Earlier this month, the town responded by erecting stop signs at several intersections — Lakeland Court, Kearns Drive, Prosperity and Blossom Tree roads, and Fawn and Longview lanes.

Cagle’s primary concern is Virginia Avenue’s speed limit, which she thinks is too high at 25 mph. She points out that the road often is filled with children and parked cars that block the view of potential hazards.

“If that would have been a smaller child that night, the child would have never survived,” she said of her daughter’s accident. “Luckily, she was a bigger girl. … People just have not gotten a clue around here.

“I think 25 (mph) is extremely too fast in a residential area that has this many children in it.”

Bunker said the town would likely wait to determine the impact of the additional stop signs before revisiting any decisions to change the speed limit.

“I don’t think that’s totally off the table,” he said, “but there’s a process you have to go through to try and lower the speed limits. That’s something the Police Department would have to address, and it doesn’t happen overnight.”

“They can at times be lowered to 15 mph,” Bunker continued, adding that he was not aware of any publicly maintained residential streets in Culpeper with a 15-mph speed limit.

In the meantime, Mekayla said she’s spending the rest of the summer “playing with my friends and playing with my puppy,” her Pomeranian dog, Rascal. She hopes to attend college and become a veterinarian.

“I told my mom I’m getting at least 12 pets,” she said with a laugh.

Nate Delesline III can be reached at 825-0771 ext. 110 or .