ANNANDALE, Va. — The wrong-way driver who caused a chain reaction crash in Annandale Thursday morning has been charged with a DUI, police said.
The crash stopped all traffic on the main lanes of the Inner Loop in Annandale, according to Virginia State Police officials.
The four-vehicle collision happened on the Inner Loop just before Little River Turnpike/Exit 52 around 3:00 a.m. Officials said a wrong-way driver was traveling south in the northbound lanes on I-495 near Braddock Road. Within seconds, the wrong-way driver hit another vehicle head-on.
Police said the crashes caused debris from the damaged vehicles to scatter along the northbound lanes on I-495. Two other northbound vehicles hit the debris from the first crash. Then, a third vehicle hit one of the crashed vehicles, which caused one of those vehicles to hit two pedestrians, police said.
These pedestrians were from the already damaged vehicles, and had gotten out of their vehicles after the initial crash.
Police said six patients were transported to a nearby hospital for treatment. One of them is being treated for life-threatening injuries. The driver, an adult Fairfax County man, was transported to Inova Fairfax Hospital for treatment of non-life threatening injuries
Fairfax County Fire and Rescue units responded, along with Virginia State Police, officials said.