A Virginia Senator was among thousands of travelers stranded overnight on 1-95 after a large snowstorm caused several car wrecks on the interstate.
“I started my normal 2 hour drive to DC at 1pm yesterday. 19 hours later, I’m still not near the Capitol. My office is in touch with [the Virginia Department of Transportation] to see how we can help other Virginians in this situation. Please stay safe everyone,” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) said Tuesday morning on Twitter.
I started my normal 2 hour drive to DC at 1pm yesterday. 19 hours later, I’m still not near the Capitol. My office is in touch with @VaDOT to see how we can help other Virginians in this situation. Please stay safe everyone. pic.twitter.com/Sz1b1hZJZ5
— Tim Kaine (@timkaine) January 4, 2022
In later tweets, Kaine said a family from Connecticut handed out oranges to motorists who were stuck in stand-still traffic overnight, and that though he was frustrated with the situation, he was not in “serious trouble.”
Kaine has not provided an update since Tuesday morning.
Monday morning, a snowstorm blasted northern Virginia, causing multiple car wrecks that stopped traffic. After some, like Kaine, sat in their cars from Monday into Tuesday, officials decided early Tuesday morning to close the highway in order to clear as many of the wrecks as possible.
According to reports, the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) is hoping to have the wrecks cleared by Tuesday evening, and hopes to have traffic moving before rush hour Wednesday.
“While we were able to clear many different accidents and trucks and move a little bit of traffic, we know that there were still an enormous amount of vehicles that were stuck for many, many hours, which we find completely unacceptable for those folks,” district engineer for VDOT’s Fredericksburg District Marcie Parker reportedly said.
Fortunately, good samaritans have been easy to come by during the jam.
Truck drivers offered to help stranded drivers, according to one motorist called Isaac Arcos, offering them nourishment and
“Truck drivers were reaching out to other drivers as well and saying ‘hey, if you’re hungry, if you’re cold, if you’re thirsty, reach out to a truck driver; we always have snacks, we always have extra blankets, we always have extra drinks,” Arcos told CNN. “And honestly, truck drivers are the real heroes.”
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Pete D’Abrosca is a contributor at The Virginia Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Tim Kaine” by United States Senate. Background Photo “Blizzard Traffic” by Tim Kaine.
