Two accidents shut down lanes on the Capital Beltway in Virginia in advance of the afternoon rush Tuesday.
Around 2:20 p.m., a box truck struck a work zone safety vehicle in the northbound lanes of I-495 at Exit 54/Braddock Road. The driver, 24-year-old Richard Edwards of Woodbridge, lost control and struck the Jersey wall.
Edwards, who was not wearing a seat belt, was pronounced dead at Fairfax Inova Hospital.
The driver of the safety vehicle was not injured but was taken to a hospital as a precaution.
The crash was still under investigation about 10 p.m.
Traffic is flowing again past the site of the second accident, which happened around 2:30 p.m. about a half-mile east of the first crash.
In that incident, a tractor-trailer partially overturned on a flyover ramp connecting westbound I-495 to the southbound HOV lanes of I-95.
The tractor-trailer was leaning against a jersey barrier on the ramp, where debris spilled at least a foot deep onto the travel lanes of the Beltway's Inner Loop below. The tractor-trailer was removed from the ramp by 6 p.m., and the ramp is now open.
Several lanes of the Beltway and on the flyover ramp were closed while crews cleaned up the scene.
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The driver of the tractor-trailer, 41-year-old Hector Y. Lopez-Navarro, of Woodbridge was not injured, Corine Geller of the Virginia State Police said. He was charged with reckless driving.
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