Drivers waited in traffic for over a day while I-95 was blocked by traffic. photo by Steve Helber / Associated Press
On January 3rd, 2022, a major snowstorm left hundreds of drivers trapped on I-95 near Fredericksburg, Virginia, for over 24 hours.
Commuters traveling on Interstate 95 on Monday, January 3rd, were suddenly faced with a major snowstorm, causing accidents that effectively blocked a 40-mile stretch near Fredericksburg, Virginia, for more than 24 hours. Virginia’s Governor Ralph Northam said that the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) was prepared for a few inches of snow, but instead, the Fredericksburg area got more than a foot. The storm began on Monday with rain, which washed away road salts that would have kept the road clear, before transitioning to two inches of snowfall per hour. The snow lasted for five hours, accumulating more than 15 inches in some parts of the state. With the roads untreated, snow accumulated rapidly and traffic slowed to a standstill when several vehicles and tractor-trailers slid sideways across the highway. The storm also disrupted an Amtrak train bound for New York from New Orleans which returned to the station in Lynchburg, Virginia, due to downed trees blocking the tracks.
Many people who were stuck on I-95 spent the night in their cars, occasionally getting out to stretch their legs, while others stayed inside to keep warm. Some people abandoned their cars altogether. Gas stations and convenience stores in the area received a steady stream of customers, many of whom arrived on foot and walked a quarter-mile from the highway. Among those trapped was Virginia Senator Tim Kaine, who had to “sleep in [his] car… on an ice-packed interstate with a ton of other cars.” He reportedly turned on his car for 30-minute intervals to charge his phone and keep warm and would turn it off for 20 minutes to conserve gas. Others, including a group of college students heading to Elon, North Carolina, got off the highway when conditions worsened. Elizabeth Davidson, who was part of the group, said there were “major accidents everywhere. Everywhere you looked there [were] abandoned cars or cars getting stuck or hitting one another.” After leaving the highway, they entered an apocalyptic-esque pitch black town with abandoned cars everywhere and broken streetlights. That evening, VDOT Fredericksburg tweeted that they “had [no] timetable, ETA or an educated guess on when travel [would] resume on I-95.”
The storm impacted parts of Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Kentucky. Schools across multiple states remained closed on Tuesday due to the extreme cold, and 234,000 people in Virginia alone did not have power. Five deaths were reported due to the winter storm. One was a seven-year-old girl who died after a tree fell on her house in Townsend, Tennessee. Another child, a five-year-old boy in Georgia, was also killed when heavy rain and strong winds near Atlanta caused a tree to fall on his home. Three more people died in Montgomery County, Maryland, when an SUV collided with a snowplow. No deaths were reported in the traffic jam in Virginia.
On Tuesday evening, 36 hours after the first snowfall, VDOT tweeted that traffic was cleared and that I-95 was moving again, but those who were trapped were left with more questions than answers. Some drivers did not see snow plows or police officers until early the next morning. Lauren Opett, a spokesperson for the Virginia Department of Emergency Management, said that the state national guard was not activated because it would have taken too long for them to reach the scene. She said it takes roughly 12-24 hours for personnel to be deployed and was doubtful that the jam would last that long. Marcie Parker, a district engineer for VDOT Fredericksburg, said that snow had also knocked out power to some traffic cameras, making it difficult to pinpoint exactly where accidents were, and because of the location of the wrecks, express lanes did not help in clearing the backup.
Meteorologists at AccuWeather forecasted the rapid accumulation of over half a foot of snow and deteriorating conditions as early as Sunday morning. In a statement on Wednesday, chief meteorologist Jonathan Porter said, “It was very unfortunate to see… the suffering, anxiety, and fear that so many people affected felt, especially when you consider it could have been avoided by more proactive responses based on the AccuWeather forecast that highlighted this very concern.” The National Weather Service expected another snowstorm to roll through the area starting on the evening of Thursday the 6th, and areas that were hard hit on Monday were forecasted to get even more snow. On Wednesday, Governor Northam declared a pre-emptive state of emergency, putting the national guard on standby to respond to any emergencies resulting from the storm. “Having two bouts of snow and icy weather back to back makes it more likely communities will need additional help as they continue to recover from the first round of tree-snapping wet snow and ice that we saw on Monday,” he said.
When he arrived in Washington, Senator Kaine said the incident was an example of a need to invest in infrastructure. “Generally, we’re just not as big investors [in] infrastructure as we should be.” States that experience snowy weather on a regular basis generally try to keep their snowplows running as much as possible to ensure that state-controlled roads remain clear, but many drivers on I-95 between Monday and Tuesday claimed that VDOT was simply unprepared for the snow that was expected, leaving drivers such as Arlin Tellez feeling abandoned by the local government. “When we tried to call the police, because at this point that was our only resource, they literally just told us to hang on tight,” she said.
The Virginia Department of Transportation has been quiet about the traffic jam in the weeks since, but Kelly Hannon, a spokeswoman for the department, said VDOT would take an “exhaustive look” at the incident. Many government officials and weather experts have said that they could have done a better job at preventing the 47-mile shutdown. However, VDOT Fredericksburg appears to have learned from its mistakes. Ahead of a storm that was set to hit the area on the weekend leading up to Martin Luther King Jr. Day, VDOT said that trucks and crews would have to travel at slower speeds to ensure an adequate amount of snow-melting solution was absorbed into the pavement. A statement from the department said, “the brine helps prevent ice from bonding to the pavement during winter weather, which can reduce the risk of hazardous travel conditions and assists crews with snow and ice removal.”
