Stuck: Commuters Share American Legion Bridge Nightmares
The inner loop northbound on I-495 American Legion Bridge in Virginia was reportedly shut down for almost 13 hours Thursday evening due to an overturned tanker. At approximately 2 p.m., Virginia resident Harold Smith, managed to catch the accident on video as it overturned on the bridge with his dash camera. Smith described what he saw as a “horrible” accident.
https://twitter.com/haroldsmith3rd/status/1111331656063950848
Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Battalion Chief John Price reported about the accident on the scene and had this to say:
“We arrived on the scene, the tanker trailer was on it side. There were three other personal vehicles involved….one minor injury, one of the other drivers. The tanker trailer loss approximately 150 gallons of gasoline. We are in the process of attempting to clean that up. Nothing has gotten into the water shed right now. We are working with Montgomery County Fire and Rescue to mitigate the incident. We are going to remain on scene for an unknown unspecified time until we can determine how much product we’ve loss. It’ll be off loaded onto a separate tanker….at that point we can start resuming traffic operations and open up the interstate,” said Price on Thursday evening.
UPDATE Haz Mat incident I495 NB: Battalion Chief Price with an update. #FCFRD #traffic #news pic.twitter.com/6VOCcedMo7
— Fairfax County Fire/Rescue (@ffxfirerescue) March 28, 2019
UPDATE HAZ MAT incident I495 NB. Driver of the truck not injured. One minor injury from one of cars. #FCFRD #traffic pic.twitter.com/kTLUzFuioY
— Fairfax County Fire/Rescue (@ffxfirerescue) March 28, 2019
#FCFRD and @mcfrs HazMat crews currently working to transfer gasoline from overturned trailer. They have successfully offloaded one pod (1/4 of product), they have 3 pods left. Anticipate completing operation in next 2 hours after which @VaDOTNOVA will work to upright tanker. pic.twitter.com/CL3wIeDO6H
— Fairfax County Fire/Rescue (@ffxfirerescue) March 29, 2019
Ever wonder what’s in our spill trailers? Now you can see. We also have evac trailers, yodocks (Google it), message boards, cones, etc. pic.twitter.com/oY2riNUOic
— VDOT Northern VA (@VaDOTNOVA) March 28, 2019
The Virginia Department of Transportation was on the scene to assist Fairfax and Montgomery County Fire and Rescue teams. The rescue effort was described as VDOT provided spill trailers with all of the necessary tools to help clean up the spill.
“Evac trailers, yodocks, message boards and cones” were used to help clean up the spilled gas on the I-495 interstate, according to a tweet by VDOT.
Progress! (And IMC 903) pic.twitter.com/Hc30iiwyRW
— VDOT Northern VA (@VaDOTNOVA) March 28, 2019
All. The. Tools. @ffxfirerescue @VDEM pic.twitter.com/nulngrxzB2
— VDOT Northern VA (@VaDOTNOVA) March 28, 2019
https://twitter.com/GetMikeWalsh/status/1111395820547571713
The incident continues. The Inner Loop is still closed and will remain so for many more hours. pic.twitter.com/ZkofFmVoWV
— VDOT Northern VA (@VaDOTNOVA) March 29, 2019
Ever wonder what a multi-jurisdictional, multi-agency coordinated complex incident scene looks like? @ffxfirerescue apparatus are nothing short of breathtaking. pic.twitter.com/XqVQ9b4GfQ
— VDOT Northern VA (@VaDOTNOVA) March 29, 2019
Commuters Stories via Social Media about American Legion Bridge Traffic Nightmares
Some commuters were outraged due to long hours they were stuck in traffic and others were seemingly grateful for Fairfax and Montgomery County Fire and Rescue efforts that were made to resolve the incident.
Other commuters used sarcasm as a way to bring a silver lining to a traffic tragedy that kept commuters from their destinations for hours.
South bound was really bad too because everyone slowed down to watch. Took me an hour extra to get to this point. pic.twitter.com/rO0dCIQDQZ
— Get Vaccinated جولیا (@juliaeads) March 28, 2019
You're going to need a helicopter to get home if you live up past that bridge.
— Jay (@Exnasa1) March 28, 2019
Forever thankful for all that our Fire and Rescue do for our community
— Karen CorbettSanders (@Karen4Schools) March 29, 2019
https://twitter.com/Yogitastic/status/1111665035078717440
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