ER and accident trauma care in Hampton Roads

The minute a serious crash happens on I-64 or Virginia Beach Boulevard, a chain of decisions starts that most drivers never think about until they are strapped to a backboard. Which ambulance responds. Which hospital it drives to. Whether that hospital can open a trauma bay at 3 a.m. In the Norfolk, Portsmouth and Newport News region, those answers are more settled than you might expect, because the area runs on one top-tier trauma hospital and a regional system built around it.

Here is what that system looks like, where the crashes that feed it actually happen, and what to do if you are the one being wheeled through the doors.

How many crashes the region produces

Start with the scale. Across Virginia in 2024 there were 129,244 reported crashes, 918 people killed, and 64,086 injured.¹ Hampton Roads carries a heavy share of it.

In 2024 the seven core cities recorded these totals: Virginia Beach with 5,272 crashes and 24 deaths, Norfolk with 4,785 crashes and 20 deaths, Hampton with 3,590 crashes and 13 deaths, Newport News with 3,463 crashes and 19 deaths, Chesapeake with 2,459 crashes and 19 deaths, Suffolk with 1,707 crashes and 14 deaths, and Portsmouth with 1,078 crashes and 6 deaths.¹ Add those up and it comes to more than 22,300 crashes and roughly 13,400 injuries in a single year, about 61 crashes a day.¹

Speed is a big reason so many of those crashes turn serious. Statewide, 25,705 crashes in 2024 were speed-related, and those alone killed 410 people.¹

The one hospital that anchors the system

If you are an adult with life-threatening injuries anywhere in Hampton Roads, there is really one destination. Sentara Norfolk General Hospital is the region's only Level I trauma center, one of just six in all of Virginia, and it runs the area's only burn center.²³ In 2022 its trauma team treated close to 5,000 patients.² A Level I designation means fellowship-trained trauma and critical care surgeons are in the building around the clock, not on call from home.²

The Peninsula has its own major resource. Riverside Regional Medical Center in Newport News, at 500 J. Clyde Morris Boulevard, is a designated Level II trauma center, which handles most serious injuries without the full research-and-teaching footprint of a Level I.³

Injured children are routed differently. Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters in Norfolk, on Children's Lane, is the region's only Level I pediatric trauma center.⁴ A badly hurt child from Suffolk or Hampton is likely headed there.

When ground transport is too slow, Sentara's Nightingale Regional Air Ambulance flies. Based at Norfolk General since 1982, it covers a 125-mile radius and runs more than 700 missions a year, carrying trauma, cardiac, neurological, pediatric and obstetric patients.⁵ The Tidewater EMS Council coordinates the wider network. It is the nonprofit body established in 1974 that oversees ambulance services and trauma triage across Chesapeake, Franklin, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Virginia Beach and the surrounding counties.⁶

Where the crashes happen

The Hampton Roads Transportation Planning Organization studied the entire regional freeway system and more than 1,000 intersections, then asked each city to flag its worst spot.⁷ The result reads like a local commuter's daily route:

• Norfolk: Colley Avenue at 26th and 27th Streets
• Virginia Beach: Rosemont Road at Holland Road
• Newport News: 39th Street at Roanoke Avenue
• Portsmouth: High Street at Peninsula Avenue
• Chesapeake: Battlefield Boulevard at Woodlake Drive and Debaun Avenue
• Hampton: North Armistead Avenue at LaSalle Avenue
• Suffolk: Portsmouth Boulevard at Nansemond Parkway and East Washington Street

Knowing the corner is only half of it. HRTPO's engineers also asked why crashes here have gotten deadlier, and their answer was blunt. Individual crashes have become more fatal since the start of the pandemic, and reckless speeding, roughly 20 mph or more over the limit, rose fivefold over the study period.⁷ They concluded that a sharp drop in speed enforcement was the main cause of that jump.⁷ Faster impacts mean worse injuries, and worse injuries mean more trauma activations at Norfolk General.

What the ER must do, and what you should do

If you are taken to any emergency department in the region, federal law is on your side about being seen. Under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1395dd, any ER at a hospital that takes Medicare must give you an appropriate medical screening exam and stabilize an emergency condition regardless of whether you can pay, and it cannot delay that screening to ask about your insurance first.⁸ A bill comes later. Treatment comes first.

The harder part is on you. Get evaluated even if you feel fine at the scene. Adrenaline masks pain, and problems like internal bleeding, a concussion, or a spinal injury can stay quiet for hours. A trauma center exists to catch what a shaken driver cannot feel yet. Agree to the imaging, and keep every discharge paper, because those records are the backbone of both your recovery and any claim.

After the trauma bay

Medical care and the legal clock run on separate tracks, and the legal one is shorter than most people assume. In Virginia you generally have two years from the date of the crash to file a personal injury lawsuit, under Virginia Code § 8.01-243.⁹ Miss that window and even a strong case is usually gone.

Trauma bills in this region climb fast, and working out who pays, your insurer, the other driver's, or your own health coverage, gets complicated when the injuries are severe. If you want help sorting out your options, you can find an attorney through the thatcarhitme.com legal directory.

This article is general information, not legal advice.

Sources

1. Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, 2024 Virginia Traffic Crash Facts. https://www.dmv.virginia.gov/sites/default/files/documents/VA-traffic-crash-2024.pdf

2. Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, Trauma Services. https://www.sentara.com/medicalservices/Trauma-Services/trauma-services-sngh

3. Virginia Department of Health, Office of Emergency Medical Services, Virginia Trauma Centers. https://www.vdh.virginia.gov/emergency-medical-services/trauma-critical-care/virginia-trauma-centers/

4. Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters (CHKD), About Us. https://www.chkd.org/about-us/who-we-are/

5. Sentara Nightingale Regional Air Ambulance. https://www.sentara.com/medicalservices/nightingale/about-nightingale

6. Tidewater EMS Council. https://www.tidewaterems.org/

7. Hampton Roads Transportation Planning Organization (HRTPO), Hampton Roads Regional Safety Study and Crash Fatality Increase Factors Study, presented May 1, 2024. https://www.hrpdcva.gov/DocumentCenter/View/12084/050124-CAO-06_Presentation-Hampton-Roads-Regional-Safety-Study-Update

8. Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), 42 U.S.C. § 1395dd. https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/1395dd

9. Code of Virginia § 8.01-243. https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title8.01/chapter4/section8.01-243/