A person has died following a tractor-trailer crash on I-95 in Chesterfield County, Virginia, where a dump truck overturned at the scene and lane closures are expected to drag on for hours. Virginia State Police said they responded at 12:57 p.m. Tuesday to northbound I-95 at the 58-mile marker, near the Woods Edge exit.
Troopers confirmed that one person died as a result of the crash, according to 12onyourside.com, which reported the overturned dump truck at the scene and said northbound lanes were expected to stay closed for an extended period. The outlet described the situation as a developing one that would be updated as more details emerged.
Accounts of exactly which lanes were shut down differ. WTVR reported that all southbound lanes of I-95 were closed in Chesterfield County after the deadly dump truck crash, and that the northbound left shoulder, left lane and center lane were also shut down. That account did not match the earlier description of a purely northbound incident, and it remains unclear whether both reports describe the same crash scene.
Earlier Crash Backed Up Traffic Past the Appomattox River
A separate report from WRIC described a November 21, 2022, crash at mile marker 54.2 near Temple Avenue. It said all northbound lanes were initially closed, with traffic backed up past the Appomattox River. The station later reported that the Virginia Department of Transportation said all lanes had been reopened. Drivers should expect delays in the area, the same WTVR report noted.
Motorists are encouraged to avoid the area and seek an alternate route while crews work the scene. The crash adds to a rough stretch for I-95 travelers in the Richmond region this week, after two separate tractor-trailer crashes slowed parts of the interstate in Hanover on Monday, per foxrichmond.com. That earlier pair of wrecks forced a total of 11 miles of the interstate to be shut down, with one crash located not far from the Kings Dominion exit.
A Familiar Stretch of Highway
Colonial Heights has seen its share of serious I-95 wrecks in recent memory. In March 2024, a five-vehicle crash involving a tractor-trailer shut down all southbound lanes near Southpark Boulevard at mile marker 53, according to WRIC. That chain-reaction crash began when a two-vehicle collision occurred on the Temple Avenue exit ramp, and two other vehicles crashed into each other trying to avoid it; an empty flatbed tractor-trailer then jackknifed while braking to avoid the pileup, blocking all lanes.
A motorcyclist was killed in a crash on I-95 near mile marker 54.2 just before Temple Avenue on November 21, 2022, Virginia State Police said at the time.
As of now, the exact sequence of events behind Tuesday's fatal crash has not been established, and the victim's identity has not been released. This remains a developing story, and Hoodline will update as Virginia State Police, VDOT or local outlets release further information.
