A fatal multi-vehicle wreck caused almost 20 miles of traffic backups Tuesday afternoon on northbound Interstate 81 in Montgomery County.
Virginia State Police Sgt. Rick Garletts said the wreck happened at about 1:15 p.m. near the 127.5 mile marker, when a flat bed tractor-trailer traveling down Christiansburg mountain in the right lane encountered traffic that was slowing down. The tractor-trailer veered to the left and sideswiped a passenger car moving in the left lane. It also hit a second car in the rear, causing that vehicle to rear-end a box truck traveling in the left lane.
A 31-year-old woman was killed in the wreck. More information on the victim’s identity and which vehicle she was in was not immediately available.
Police closed both lanes at mile marker 127.5 between 1:15 p.m. and 3:21 p.m. before reopening the right shoulder to traffic. All northbound lanes were reopened by 3:57 p.m.
Jen Ward, spokeswoman for the Virginia Department of Transportation, said backups caused by the wreck stretched for 19 miles before congestion started thinning. At 9:10 p.m., VDOT’s website still listed 10 miles of backup related to the wreck.
Ward said that traffic on I-81 has been heavy throughout the day, causing frequent congestion incidents. Tuesday night, the website showed 16 miles of congestion in the northbound lanes at mile marker 146 in Roanoke County.
“The congestion has been because there’s just been so much traffic,” Ward said. “We suspect that people are coming back from the eclipse.”
Drivers were advised to seek alternate routes.
Messages seeking information about the wreck from state police were not immediately returned.
Traffic updates will be distributed through Virginia 511 and on Twitter .
