A fatal multi-vehicle crash shut down the westbound lanes of Portsmouth Boulevard in Suffolk for hours Thursday night, and the resulting traffic backup triggered a second crash nearby that sent one person to the hospital. Suffolk Emergency Communications said the initial crash happened at approximately 10:45 p.m. Thursday in the 1900 block of Portsmouth Boulevard.
Suffolk police are investigating the crash, which resulted in at least one fatality, according to WAVY.com. All westbound lanes were shut until 1:02 a.m. Friday.
Backup Leads to Second Crash Near Bob Foeller Drive
As traffic backed up behind the closure, a second crash occurred near Bob Foeller Drive as a result of the stopped vehicles, the outlet reported. One person was transported to the hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries from that second collision. All lanes along the corridor reopened at 5:34 a.m. Friday, restoring the roadway to normal flow after more than six hours of disruption.
Details about how the original crash unfolded, including how many people were killed or how the vehicles collided, have not been released. The station noted that it had reached out for additional details on the initial crash, and no further information had been provided as of publication.
Portsmouth Boulevard's History of Serious Wrecks
This is not the first time this stretch of roadway has seen tragedy. In June 2023, Suffolk Police responded to a single-vehicle crash in the same 1900 block of Portsmouth Boulevard, after a vehicle left the roadway and struck a pole, according to a release from the City of Suffolk. Two adult occupants, identified as Adam Lee Carr, 28, of Suffolk, and Ana Ray, 24, of Virginia Beach, were pronounced deceased at the scene, while an infant in the vehicle was transported to an area hospital with serious injuries.
Suffolk police also recorded two fatal crashes in the 1900 block in 2022. A single-vehicle crash on Feb. 26 killed Arthur Lee Johnson, 42, of Chesapeake, according to the city’s release on that crash. In a separate two-vehicle collision there on May 22, Jalisa Ashlyn Nicole Hill, 33, of Virginia Beach, died; four other people were taken to hospitals, the city said in its account of the crash. The incidents were separate, and the releases do not establish a common cause.
The corridor has also seen other multi-vehicle wrecks. In a separate incident reported by the same station, three people were injured in a crash on Portsmouth Boulevard. One was seriously injured and taken to Sentara Norfolk General, while the other two had non-life-threatening injuries. Another crash reported on the roadway, this one a two-vehicle collision in the 1200 block around 5:30 p.m. on a Tuesday evening, left no one trapped, and two people involved refused transport by paramedics.
No additional details about Thursday night's fatal crash, including its cause or the identities of those involved, have been released by Suffolk authorities.
