1 driver seriously injured after 4 crashes along I-295, officials say
D.C. officials are responding to a crazy string of Christmas morning accidents along one stretch of Interstate 295.
D.C. Fire and EMS and the D.C. Department of Transportation tell WTOP that four separate car accidents happened between 11:40 p.m. on Christmas Eve and 1 a.m. on Christmas Day.
The first two minor crashes happened in the northbound lanes at 11:40 p.m., according to officials.
At around midnight, as DDOT was on the scene clearing those crashes, another collision happened, flipping a vehicle in the southbound lanes upside down and pinning a man underneath the car.
Traffic was snarled waiting for EMTs to free the trapped driver when first responders reported a fourth and final crash along the same stretch of I-295 between Eastern Avenue and Burroughs Avenue Northeast.
Officials said a man driving the overturned car had to be removed using extraction equipment and was taken to a local hospital with serious injuries. No one else was in the car with him and no other serious injuries were reported.
DDOT said that all lanes were cleared just after 1 a.m.