A man is facing criminal charges after he careened his car off Interstate 66 in Virginia onto Metrorail tracks Wednesday and suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
The car crashed on the I-66 westbound express lanes prior to the Cedar Lane overpass around 11:24 a.m., Fairfax County Fire and Rescue said on social media.
No other cars or vehicles were involved, and the driver was the only person injured. He was taken to a local hospital for treatment.
An initial investigation by Virginia State Police found that the man reached for his E-Z Pass, according to WTOP-FM.This caused him to drive onto ice and snow on the left side of the highway, which acted as an impromptu ramp and sent the car airborne.
The driver, who has not been publicly identified by law enforcement or by Fairfax fire officials, is charged with reckless driving, according to WTOP-FM.
The car, a gray Honda Accord, came to rest near the Dunn Loring station and ended up blocking the tracks on the Orange Line between the Vienna and West Falls Church stations, according to a Metrorail account on X.
The westbound high-occupancy express lanes on I-66 near Nutley Street were also closed off, the Virginia Department of Transportation said.
The tracks were blocked for more than two hours until crews removed the vehicle at around 1:30 p.m., the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority account said on X.
After that, the Orange Line was single-tracked until around 2:37 p.m., when normal service resumed. The closed lanes on I-66 reopened around the same time, Virginia transportation officials said.
• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.
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