THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 23, 1994 TAG: 9407230243
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 47 lines
Interstate 264 westbound was reduced to a parking lot lined with damaged vehicles Friday by a series of accidents. State police blamed reckless driving and poor weather for the accidents.
At least 20 vehicles, including an ice cream truck, were involved in at least 10 accidents, creating a traffic snarl that didn't clear until well after the rush hour. State police still were completing the paperwork Friday night.
No one was seriously hurt in any of the accidents.
The first accident occurred about 2:40 p.m. near the Merrimack Avenue interchange when an Edy's ice cream truck driven by Christopher J. Craig, 34, of Virginia Beach, went off the road and into the median, where it overturned.
State police said Craig was driving too fast given the road conditions and was cited for reckless driving.
Some of the truck's ice cream spilled, passers-by said.
Over the next three hours - and as thunderstorms soaked the road several times - a series of accidents occurred, some involving several vehicles.
At times, westbound traffic on 264 was stalled as far from downtown Norfolk as Newtown Road in Virginia Beach.
Alternate routes to downtown Norfolk, such as Virginia Beach Boulevard and Indian River Road, were also tied up at times as motorists sought to escape the clogged interstate.
One unidentified trucker on Indian River Road, talking over CB radio, summed it up: ``Can't go that way. Can't go this way. Can't go no way. I may as well just park and go to sleep.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo by LAWRENCE JACKSON, Staff
Christopher J. Craig, 34, of Virginia Beach, driver of an Edy's ice
cream truck, sits in a motor assistance vehicle Friday after his
truck overturned on Interstate 264. State police said Craig was
driving too fast and was cited for reckless driving.
KEYWORDS: ACCIDENT TRAFFIC by CNB