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A recent Monday afternoon wreck on the Virginia side of I-495, south of the American Legion Bridge, closed the Beltway and backed up traffic for miles in Maryland and Virginia. Hopefully, this unfortunate incident will serve as a reminder for all Fauquier and Culpeper motorists of the devastation caused by large trucks that fail to stop in a sudden traffic jam.
The multi-vehicle wreck occurred just after Hoai Phan crossed the American Legion Bridge, heading south on I-495. Phan, of Sterling, was driving in the right center lane when her Nissan Altima broke down, according to Bethesda Patch. James Oliver, of Capitol Heights, MD, quickly stopped his Freightliner truck behind the Nissan. Then, two other drivers stopped their cars behind the truck and the Nissan: Helena Cohen, of Fairfax City, driving a Honda Accord, and Megan Pezzi, of McLean, in her Pontiac Grand Am.
Soon after, another Freightliner truck slammed into the Pontiac with such force that the car struck the Honda, which in turn was forced into the rear of Oliver's truck.
It took the Fairfax County and Montgomery County fire and rescue teams quite some time to extract Cohen from underneath Oliver's truck.
Pezzi got out of the wreckage through the passenger side of her Pontiac. She and Cohen were transported by ambulance to Inova Fairfax Hospital with injuries. Phan and Oliver were not injured. Luckily, all drivers were wearing their seatbelts, which probably explains how no one was killed or critically hurt, despite the great material damage.
The driver of the tractor trailer who failed to stop, Chiemezie Onyheachu, of Indiana, PA, was charged with reckless driving.
