Traffic

House Fire Prompts Closure of Columbia Pike

By ARLnow.com
1/10

All lanes of Columbia Pike were closed during a portion of this morning’s rush hour due to a house fire.

The smoky fire was reported around 8:15 a.m., in a house fire on S. Monroe Street. As of 8:35 a.m., firefighters on the scene confirmed that they had extinguished the fire.

No injuries were reported.

Traffic congestion has been reported on the Pike as a result of the road closure, particularly westbound traffic in the area of S. George Mason Drive. Due to fire hoses on the ground, the road closure was not expected to be lifted until around 9:15 a.m.

Photos courtesy ACFD, ‏@_UrbunHippie

Seat Belt Enforcement Campaign to Start Thursday

By ARLnow.com

Arlington police car equipped with license plate readersStarting Thursday, Arlington County Police will be conducting seat belt enforcement as part of the national Click it or Ticket campaign.

The “no-excuses, zero-tolerance crackdown” is timed to coincide with the busy Thanksgiving travel period.

From an ACPD press release:

Every year, the Thanksgiving holiday is one of the busiest travel times.  Millions of Americans hit the roads to spend time with family and friends. Unfortunately, more vehicles on the road means the potential for more dangerous roads, and it’s as important as ever that everyone is buckled up.

The Arlington County Police Department will be joining other state and local law enforcement agencies to participate in the United States Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) high-visibility seat belt enforcement campaign Click It or Ticket.  The no-excuses, zero-tolerance crackdown combines powerful messages about seat belt safety, with increased patrols day and night, targeting all unbuckled motorists.

NHTSA research indicates that proper seat belt use reduces the risk of fatal injury to front seat passengers by 45 percent, and the risk of moderate to serious injury by 50 percent.  In 2013, seat belts saved the lives of 12,584 passenger vehicle occupants. If seat belt use had been at 100 percent, an additional 2,800 people would still be alive this Thanksgiving.

Nationwide, the seat belt use rate is at an all-time high of 87 percent, but the Click It or Ticket campaign aims to reach that remaining 13 percent. In 2013, for example, there were 9,580 unbuckled occupants killed in crashes–49 percent of all passenger vehicle occupants killed that year.  At night, the numbers are even more disturbing.  During the Thanksgiving holiday weekend in 2013, law enforcement noted that 64 percent of the passenger vehicle occupants killed at night were unrestrained, as compared to 48 percent during the day.

It only takes a second to buckle up, and isn’t that easier than getting pulled over and ticketed? With the help of highway safety advocates and local law enforcement officers across the country, we can increase seat belt use and save lives on our roadways this Thanksgiving.

Remember: Click It or Ticket. You have a lot to lose otherwise.

For more information on the Click It or Ticket mobilization, please visit www.nhtsa.gov/ciot.

UPDATED: Overturned Vehicle on Columbia Pike

By ARLnow.com
1/13

(Updated 6:35 p.m.) All lanes of Columbia Pike are blocked due to an overturned vehicle near Thai Square restaurant.

One person was reported to be trapped and injured. Firefighters removed the man from the vehicle, a Honda hatchback, and transported him to a local hospital.

The trapped driver is suspected of DUI, according to scanner traffic.

Initial reports suggest the driver in the Honda was driving westbound on Columbia Pike when he struck the rear quarter panel of a parked sedan, causing the Honda to flip on its side. An earlier report that the suspected DUI driver was in a different vehicle was incorrect.

All lanes of the Pike are closed between S. Walter Reed Drive and S. Glebe Road were closed for about an hour. The stretch reopened around 6:35 p.m.

Heavy Traffic in Arlington Due to D.C. Barricade Situation

By ARLnow.com
1/3

(Updated at 11:00 a.m.) Traffic backups caused by a barricade situation in downtown D.C. have spilled over into Arlington.

In Rosslyn, traffic on Lynn Street approaching the Key Bridge is backed up all the way to the Iwo Jima memorial.

The Memorial Bridge, Route 50, I-66 and I-395 are all slow and congested approaching the city, even at 10 a.m. Heavy traffic has also been reported on large portions of the GW Parkway and Washington Blvd near the Pentagon.

Reports out of D.C. suggest a mentally unstable person, possibly armed with a high-powered rifle, is barricaded in a downtown office building. Police have closed a multiple block portion of downtown near the Farragut North Metro station to pedestrians and vehicles.

As of 11 a.m., the suspect was reported to be in custody.

Garbage Truck Runs into Tesla in Dominion Hills

By ARLnow.com

Tesla Model S (photo via Twitter)A county worker was sent to the hospital after a garbage truck collided with a Tesla on Tuesday morning.

The incident happened around 9 a.m., at the intersection of N. Madison Street and 9th Road N., in the Dominion Hills neighborhood.

Police say the garbage truck was turning right onto N. Madison Street, but was waiting for a pedestrian to cross the street. A driver in the high-end electric sports sedan apparently became impatient and attempted to go around the truck, according to Arlington County Police spokesman Dustin Sternbeck.

With the Tesla in the truck’s blindspot, the truck driver proceeded forward and ran into the car, Sternbeck said.

A county worker on the garbage truck was transported to the hospital for “precautionary reasons.” The woman driving the Tesla was determined to be at fault for improper passing but did not receive a traffic citation, according to Sternbeck.

File photo via Twitter

BREAKING: Multi-Vehicle Accident on Route 1 in Crystal City

By ARLnow.com
1/20

(Updated at 3:10 p.m.) Southbound Route 1 was closed between 20th and 23rd streets, near Crystal City, due to a multi-vehicle crash this afternoon.

At least 9 vehicles were involved and medics responded for at least two injuries. One of the injured parties, a young mother, was transported to a local hospital after being trapped in her severely damaged Prius. Rescuers cut off the roof of the car to free her.

The crash was caused by a driver in a pickup truck who suffered a medical emergency while driving, according to initial reports.

The truck ran right through a line of southbound traffic approaching the intersection with 23rd Street, slamming into vehicles, losing a wheel and careening across the intersection before striking a pole and coming to a stop across the street from Legal Sea Foods, witnesses said.

“It was like a pinball machine,” a witness told ARLnow.com. The pickup truck driver was evaluated by medics on the scene but declined transport to the hospital, according to scanner traffic.

Southbound traffic was diverted onto 20th Street for about an hour. As of 3:10 p.m. two lanes of traffic were squeezing by, though there was still debris in the roadway and crews were still working to clear wrecked cars from the roadway.

The Prius driver is expected to be okay. She was returning home from work when the crash happened, said the woman’s father, who arrived on scene to pick up a child seat and stroller that had been in the car. Her two-month-old child was not in the car at the time, he said.

Photos: Burned-Out Beemer Sitting on Road Near Shirlington

By ARLnow.com
1/4

The remnants of a recent car fire were still sitting on a busy road near Shirlington around lunchtime Monday.

A BMW 3-series sedan, with its front end burned out, is parked along 31st Street, a road that connects Shirlington and the Fairlington neighborhood.

The acrid stench of burned vehicle components was still fresh in the air for residents walking their dogs near past the car. There were no fire department vehicles or tow trucks in the vicinity when ARLnow.com walked by the wreck.

No word yet on when the vehicle will be removed.

TRAFFIC ALERT: WB I-66 Temporarily Blocked Due to Crash

By ARLnow.com

I-66 crash on 10/30/15

Update at 4:30 p.m. — The crashed vehicles are now on the right shoulder and two lanes of traffic are getting by. However, significant delays remain.

Update at 4:06 p.m. — One lane of traffic is now slowly squeezing by on the lefthand shoulder.

Earlier: The westbound lanes of I-66 are temporarily blocked due to a two-vehicle crash just past Glebe Road.

At least one non-life-threatening injury was reported and there appears to be some sort of a fluid spill on the highway at the crash scene.

Commuters should seek alternate routes.

Car Knocks Down Pole, Runs into Apartment Building in Buckingham

By ARLnow.com
1/8

A serious-looking crash temporarily closed N. George Mason Drive this afternoon, but no serious injuries were reported.

The incident happened around 3:30 p.m., just north of the intersection of N. George Mason Drive and Pershing Drive, in the Buckingham neighborhood.

A driver in a car somehow knocked over a light pole in the center median of George Mason Drive, then drove over a sidewalk and up an embankment before running into a two-story brick apartment building.

The building was not significantly damaged. George Mason Drive was closed while a tow truck driver maneuvered and used a chain to pull the car from the embankment and back onto the street. The road has since reopened.

A second vehicle that was reported to be involved in the crash was pulled over by police one block away from the accident scene.

In a separate incident that happened around the same time, the top of a utility pole with live wires snapped and fell down in the Lyon Village neighborhood, prompting several street closures. From Arlington Alerts:

Due to a pole with wires down the following streets are closed until further notice: Key Blvd at Fillmore, closed on Fillmore; Edgewood at Highland, closed on Highland N; 18/Harvard with no access NB; and Key at Highland with no access NB. Please seek alternate routes for this area.

Major Arlington Roads to Be Closed for Marathon

By Heather Mongilio

Roads closed due to Marine Corps MarathonTens of thousands of runners and spectators will descend on Arlington for the annual Marine Corps Marathon on Sunday.

The race, now in its 40th year, will have up to 30,000 participants running around Arlington and the District.

As a result of the race, Arlington County Police Department, Virginia State Police and the Pentagon Force Protection Agency will be closing down more than 20 roads for much of the day, including parts of Wilson Blvd, Washington Blvd and Lee Highway.

N. Kent Street in Rosslyn will be closed from Wilson Blvd to 19th Street N. from noon on Saturday, Oct. 24, until the end of the marathon on Sunday, for the marathon’s finish festival.

Route 110, between Washington Blvd and the Pentagon north parking lot, will be closed from 4 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. The highway will also be closed between I-66 and Jefferson Davis Highway from 4 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., as will Marshall Drive from N. Meade Street to Route 110.

The following roads will be closed from 4 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

  • N. Meade Street from Marshall Drive to N. Lynn Street
  • Wilson Blvd from N. Nash Street to Route 110
  • N. Lynn Street from N. Meade Street to Lee Highway
  • Fort Myer Drive from N. Meade Street to Lee Highway
  • N. Moore Street from Wilson Blvd to Lee Highway
  • 19th Street N. from N. Lynn Street to N. Nash Street

Marine Corps Marathon road closures (Courtesy of ACPD)

Eastbound Lee Highway from N. Lynn Street to N. Kirkwood, Spout Run Parkway from GW Memorial Parkway to Lee Highway and GW Memorial Parkway from Spout Run Parkway to Memorial Circle Drive will be closed from 7-10 a.m.

The Key Bridge will be closed from 7 a.m. to noon. HOV lanes on the 14th Street Bridge and I-395 near the Pentagon will be closed from 7:35 a.m. to 2 p.m.

A number of closures in Crystal City are planned to accommodate the tail end of the marathon course and the Crystal City MCM Family Festival.

The following roads will be closed starting at 7:30 a.m.

  • S. Eads Street from S. Rotary Road to Army Navy Drive until 2 p.m.
  • Army Navy Drive between S. Fern Street to 12th Street S. will reopen at 2:30 p.m.
  • 15th Street S. from Crystal Drive to S. Eads Street will open at 10 a.m.

The following roads will be closed between 7:30 a.m. and 3 p.m.

  • 12th Street S. from Army Navy Drive to Crystal Drive
  • Crystal Drive from 12th Street S. to 23rd Street S.
  • Long Bridge Drive from 12th Street S. to I-395
  • Boundary Channel Drive from I-395 to Pentagon north parking
  • Washington Blvd from Columbia Pike to Memorial Circle with southbound lanes reopening around 9:30 a.m.

Street parking will also be limited in parts of the county near the marathon course during the race. Participants and spectators are advised to either Metro in or — in Crystal City — park in a parking garage at Crystal Drive and 23rd Street S. before the road closes.

Nighttime Paving Coming to Columbia Pike

By Heather Mongilio
1/2

More nighttime road work is coming to portions of South Arlington, starting Sunday.

The county will be milling and paving part of Columbia Pike, between Washington Blvd and S. Walter Reed Drive, and S. Four Mile Run Drive, between S. George Mason Drive and Columbia Pike. Both roads were on the county’s paving schedule this year.

For the most part, paving on Columbia Pike will take place between 8 p.m. and 5 a.m. in order to minimize traffic disruptions, according to the county’s notice. Road work is expected to start Sunday, Oct. 25 and is planned to last about a week, depending on the weather, said county spokeswoman Jessica Baxter.

The paving on S. Four Mile Run will take place during the day depending on the weather. Milling on the road started yesterday, and work is expected to last a week, Baxter said.

Drivers will not be allowed to park their cars on the street while the roads are being milled and paved, mostly affecting residents living in the apartment complexes on S. Four Mile Run Drive.

Some Crystal City apartment dwellers complained of loud noises from road work in the area earlier this month, saying the ruckus made it hard to sleep.

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