All southbound lanes of I-395 near Duke Street in Alexandria were shut down for hours Monday night after a crash left one person dead, snarling traffic through the city's West End before crews reopened the highway. Virginia State Police responded to the fatal crash on September 7, and as of Tuesday morning, the identity of the person killed and the exact circumstances of the crash had not been released.
According to WJLA, the Virginia Department of Transportation reported that all southbound lanes of I-395 near Duke Street were closed around 9:17 p.m. Monday, with traffic diverted at the Duke Street exit while investigators worked the scene. The outlet reported the crash as a developing story and said its reporter, Ida Domingo, had reached out to Virginia State Police for additional details.
The Alexandria Police Department separately confirmed that officers closed the westbound Duke Street ramp to southbound I-395 around 9:13 p.m. Monday, according to The Alexandria Brief. City officers handled the ramp closure and local traffic control while Virginia State Police troopers led the actual crash investigation, reflecting the jurisdictional split that governs the interstate running through the city.
Who Investigates What on I-395
That division of labor exists because I-395 through Alexandria falls under Virginia State Police Division 7 Area 45, based in Arlington, which handles crash investigations on the interstate inside the Capital Beltway. Local Alexandria police manage city streets and assist with traffic control near interstate incidents, but state troopers retain primary authority over what happened on I-395 itself and why.
Open questions remain about what caused Monday's crash, including the vehicles involved and whether speed or a failure to stop played any role. Under Virginia Code § 46.2-894, any driver involved in a crash resulting in injury or death must stop immediately and report to law enforcement, and failing to do so at a fatal crash scene is a Class 5 felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison, per the American Lawyers Group.
A Recurring Trouble Spot Near Duke Street
Monday's crash is the latest in a string of serious incidents clustered around the Duke Street and I-395 interchange, a major merging point for West End Alexandria traffic. Less than two weeks earlier, on August 26, a two-vehicle collision on southbound I-395 near the Duke Street/Little River Turnpike exit injured a driver, blocked two travel lanes, and caused backups stretching 2.5 miles, according to ALXnow.
Earlier this year, on March 24, Virginia State Police investigated another fatal incident near the same exit, when a hit-and-run driver struck and killed a pedestrian in the travel lanes during the morning commute — a case Hoodline covered in our prior report. Further back, in November 2021, a 46-year-old Alexandria driver was killed at the same highway junction after his vehicle suffered a spare tire blowout on northbound I-395 and struck the Duke Street overpass support pillar, ALXnow reported at the time.
Statewide Fatalities Trending Down
The pattern of severe crashes at this interchange comes even as Virginia's overall traffic fatality numbers have improved. Preliminary Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles data recorded 747 traffic deaths statewide in 2025, roughly a 15 percent drop from the 918 fatalities reported in 2024. Still, interstate crashes like Monday's are logged and investigated separately from local roads, since the City of Alexandria's Vision Zero dashboard tracks municipal street collisions while state-owned highways such as I-395 fall under Virginia agencies' purview.
The city is separately pushing ahead with its Duke Street In Motion initiative, a project redesigning the Duke Street corridor between West End Alexandria and the King Street Metro station to improve transit efficiency and roadway safety near major interchanges. Once state investigators close out Monday's case, the findings will eventually be archived in the Virginia DMV's Traffic Records Electronic Data System, the statewide repository where crash reports from police agencies are consolidated after their inquiries wrap up. For now, the crash remains under active investigation, with no additional details released.
