Several lanes of the Inner Loop of the Capital Beltway were blocked for hours after a tractor trailer full of cucumbers overturned on the Capital Beltway in Springfield Tuesday morning after a chain reaction crash during the morning rush hour commute.

Continue reading

Virginia State Police say that the four-vehicle crash happened at about 8:15 a.m. near the exit for Van Dorn Street. Officials say a car driving on the Inner Loop collided with a tree-trimming truck as it changed lanes, causing the truck to lose control.

The truck then crashed into the tractor-trailer, running it off the left side of the road and striking the Jersey wall. It then veered back into traffic and struck and SUV before turning over and spilling a portion of its load.

All lanes of the Beltway were reopened just after 12:30 p.m., about four hours after the crash happened.

The driver of the truck and three children inside suffered non-life threatening injuries and was taken to an area hospital. The man who was driving the car who originally struck the tree-trimming truck, identified as 26-year-old Ammar Alshakarchi of Alexandria, also suffered serious injuries in the crash. He was later charged with making an improper lane change.

Traffic in the area is expected to be severely limited while crews clean up the accident.