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Jury out on blaze
orange
The first fatalities of Virginia’s new hunting season came a day later than in the last two years, but state game officials say it is too early to tell whether the state’s blaze-orange law is working.
( "In the last two years, on opening day, we’ve had at least one person shot and killed who was mistaken for game,” said Capt. Herb Foster, the hunter-safety coordinator for the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. This year, the first two fatalities were reported Tuesday, the second day of the season, he said.
Blaze orange failed to prevent two woundings that occurred during the cross-fire that broke out when game wandered between separate parties of hunters, Foster said. But the wounded hunters may have been too well-hidden for the other hunters to see their orange he said.
In four other woundings reported by Wednesday afternoon, blaze orange would have made no difference in two, while Foster did not have details from the other two.
One of the deaths would not have been prevented by blaze orange since it was the result of a self-inflicted wound, Foster said. But the other death came when a hunter in Floyd County was mistaken for a turkey, he said.
“One of the two fatalities, it wouldn’t have made any difference what he was wearing,” Foster said. He shot himself in the leg in a tree stand and fell out of the tree.”
The victim, who was identified by Patrick County officials as Ed Clark, 40, of Bassett, apparently died of a broken neck, Foster said.
Patrick Lewis Branch, 25, who died Tuesday in the Floyd County shooting, was not wearing blaze orange, officials said.
“He was mistaken for a turkey,” Foster said. “He was not wearing blaze orange. If he had had blaze orange on, he might not have been shot.”
More than the six reported non-fatal accidents may have occurred by the afternoon of Nov. 18 and gone unreported if they did not lead to serious injuries, he said.
Foster said it was too early to tell if the blaze-orange law was working. Authorities had hoped the law would cut hunting fatalities by as much as one-half.
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