The HOV lanes of I-395 have been shut down due to a jackknifed tractor trailer that struck the highway wall divide.
Police have blocked traffic because the truck is leaking fuel and they fear it might ignite. The fuel is coming from a 100+ gallon saddle tank, according to scanner traffic. A hazmat team is being dispatched to the scene.
Chamber Wants State Control of Energy Plan — One of the Arlington Chamber of Commerce’s legislative goals this year is to have the state take control of energy efficiency and green building standards. The Chamber’s call for statewide objectives and policies comes as Arlington is in the latter stages of developing its own Community Energy Plan. “The Chamber does not support the delegation of authority to localities to establish green-building codes and requirements on a locality-by-locality basis,” the group wrote. [Sun Gazette]
VSP Responds to Crashes During Storm — Yesterday’s snow, ice and rain storm resulted in dozens of crashes on Northern Virginia highways. Virginia State Police’s Fairfax division (which includes Arlington) responded to 69 crashes, 46 disabled vehicles and a total of 328 calls for service yesterday, according to VSP spokeswoman Corinne Geller. Statewide, VSP responded to 686 crashes, including one fatal wreck in Campbell County, near Lynchburg.
There have been numerous accidents reported on local roads and highways, including several on the 1700 block of Lee Highway, near the intersection with N. Scott Street. Among those was a serious one-vehicle crash involving a minivan that ran off the road and into a wall along I-66.
A Winter Weather Advisory is in effect until 1:00 p.m. In an Arlington Alert, the county asked residents to drive carefully.
(Updated at 10:25 a.m.) All northbound and southbound lanes of N. Glebe Road were closed between Vernon Street and Chesterbrook Road during the evening rush hour due to a serious single-vehicle wreck.
An SUV ran into a utility pole and flipped on its side on the 3900 block of N. Glebe Road around 5:00 p.m. tonight. The driver suffered an apparent cardiac arrest, according to Arlington County Police spokesman Dustin Sternbeck. Paramedics attempted to revive the man, but he was later pronounced dead at Virginia Hospital Center.
The accident happened around 5:30 p.m. The women, driving in a hybrid Ford SUV, were attempting to take the ramp to Route 50 when they were T-boned by the driver of a Mercedes sedan, according to Arlington County Police spokesman Dustin Sternbeck. The vehicle rolled onto its side and against a light pole.
Firefighters had to extricate the women from the SUV using non-traditional means, Sternbeck said, since the roof of the vehicle was leaning against the pole. The women suffered minor injuries and were taken to Inova Fairfax Hospital.
(Update at 2:40 p.m.) A vehicle flipped on its side on westbound Washington Boulevard this afternoon.
The accident occurred just past noon between I-395 and Columbia Pike, near the scene of a wreck that happened last week. A red vehicle — a Ford minivan or SUV with D.C. tags — somehow flipped on its side on a downhill stretch of Washington Boulevard near the VDOT maintenance yard. Temporary jersey barriers were in place near where the accident took place, apparently for the Washington Blvd/Columbia Pike bridge project.
Update at 9:20 a.m. — NB I-395 has partially reopened.
(Update at 8:40 a.m.) Traffic on northbound I-395 is completely blocked following a serious multi-vehicle accident near Crystal City.
The accident happened around 4:00 p.m. on the 700 block of 23rd Street S. Witnesses say an elderly driver in a white sedan pulled out of a commercial driveway, slammed into the side of passing minivan, continued driving across the street and into the front yard of Linden Resources, then back across the street and into the front of a small office building.
The elderly male driver seemed shaken up by his car’s airbag but not seriously injured, witnesses said. He was transported via ambulance to a local hospital. No other injuries were reported.
Initial reports suggest the accident involved an off-duty police officer in his or her personal vehicle. The HOV lanes are partially blocked near Glebe Road as a result of the accident. HOV traffic is getting by on the shoulder.
At least one mainline southbound and northbound lane of I-395 is also blocked. Southbound traffic is currently slowing near the Pentagon.
A D.C. taxicab somehow went up a steep embankment, ran into and partially went over a guardrail on Washington Boulevard this afternoon.
The accident happened around 1:00 p.m. on the section of Washington Boulevard between I-395 and Columbia Pike. Initial reports suggest the taxi was heading northbound from I-395 to Washington Boulevard when it ran up an embankment and into the guardrail along the southbound lanes of Washington Boulevard.
A private ambulance and another vehicle collided this afternoon in the Waycroft-Woodlawn neighborhood, near Ballston.
The accident happened at the intersection of Washington Blvd and N. Buchanan Street, approximately five blocks from Virginia Hospital Center. No word on the cause of the crash nor on whether there were any injuries.
An SUV flipped on its roof as a result of a three-vehicle accident on Route 50 during Monday’s evening rush hour.
The wreck happened around 5:30 p.m. in the eastbound lanes of Route 50. According to initial, unconfirmed reports, one of the vehicles involved made a sudden lane change, forcing the other two to swerve to avoid it. The SUV was reportedly one of the vehicles that swerved, an evasive action that caused it to lose control and flip upside down in a grassy area next to the roadway.
