A vehicle went off the Interstate 64/77 split in Charleston just after 5 p.m. Thursday, plunging below the roadway and bursting into flames after it landed in a gravel lot near Pennsylvania Avenue. Two of the three people inside died, while the third remains in stable condition, according to a news release from the Charleston Police Department.
The wreck happened just past the I-64/I-77 eastbound split and came down close to the Charleston Street Department Garage, according to WV MetroNews. The Charleston Gazette-Mail reported the vehicle landed in a gravel lot at the Martin Marietta Aggregates Charleston yard below the roadway, where Charleston Fire Department Capt. David Hodges said it burst into flames after impact. Firefighters worked to free three people who were entrapped inside, and crews had the fire out quickly, according to the same report and a separate account from WOWK-TV.
Two of the occupants were unresponsive when emergency crews arrived and were transported to a nearby hospital with injuries that have not been specified, according to Charleston Police Sgt. Travis Bailes, as cited by the Gazette-Mail. One of those two died at the scene, and police later confirmed the second person died after being hospitalized, per the newspaper's reporting and corroborated by WV MetroNews. The third occupant is in stable condition, the police release said. The vehicle's type has not been identified, and the identities of everyone involved are still being withheld until families have been notified, according to WCHS-TV.
Cause Still Unknown as Investigation Continues
Bailes said the cause of Thursday's crash is not yet known, and the case remains under investigation by the Charleston Police Department's Crash Investigation Bureau, according to the Gazette-Mail. Speed and driver distraction have often played a factor in past crashes along this stretch of road, Charleston police told WV MetroNews, though neither has been confirmed as a cause in this incident. Police are asking anyone who witnessed the crash or has relevant video footage to contact the Charleston Police Department Traffic Division at 304-348-6400.
Thursday's crash was the fourth on this elevated stretch of highway in downtown Charleston in just under five months, and the third fatal wreck in that span has now killed eight people total, according to the Gazette-Mail. Two separate accidents occurred within a three-day span in August: one killed all four occupants of a pickup truck, while a tractor-trailer crash left two men in critical condition, per WV MetroNews. Around the same time, a semi-trailer went over the wall near Christopher Street and Summers Street, critically injuring its driver and passenger, according to WSAZ.
A Stretch of Road With a Troubled History
The danger at this interchange predates this year's run of crashes. A May 2025 wreck at the split killed two people and left two others in critical condition, and a 2022 crash sent a car into the same lot below the roadway, hospitalizing four people and killing two dogs, WSAZ reported. The West Virginia Division of Highways told the station that in the past 10 years, eight incidents involved vehicles falling from the split or becoming hung up on the barrier, with half of those happening since May 2026, and that speed, distraction or impairment were identified as contributing factors in all eight. The Charleston Police Department separately told WSAZ that at least nine crashes since 2014 involved a car going over or nearly going over the barrier at the split — a count that does not line up neatly with the state's tally, though neither agency's figures were reconciled.
Following the string of crashes in August, Gov. Patrick Morrisey directed the state Division of Highways to work with law enforcement and highway safety officials to examine the circumstances behind each incident, the governor's office said in a statement carried by WSAZ. WVDOH engineers have been developing a project to install high-friction surface treatment on several elevated sections of the interstate, with installation anticipated later this fall, according to a statement from the West Virginia Division of Highways. As of the state's last public update, no change to the barriers or roadway itself had been announced.
