A multi-vehicle accident and fire on I-95 southbound just before 5:30 a.m. today caused gridlock throughout Westport.
And it won’t ease for a while. Officials estimated this morning that I-95 in that area could be closed for several days.
Westbound Post Road traffic, just before noon. The cross streets are Myrtle Avenue (left) and Imperial Avenue (right). (Drone photo/Charlie Scott)
The crash — involving 2 tractor-trailers and a passenger vehicle — ignited a blaze in a tanker truck with 8,500 gallons of gasoline, underneath Fairfield Avenue at Exit 15. None of the occupants were hurt, though a firefighter suffered a leg injury. (Click here for a video of the fire.)
The I-95 accident and fire earlier today. (Photo/Norwalk Fire Department)
Traffic was closed in both directions, and on surrounding streets. Fairfield Avenue connects Martin Luther King Boulevard and Connecticut Avenue.
Officials are checking for damage to the overpass.
The aftermath of this morning’s tanker fire. The truck cannot be moved until all contents are offloaded. (Photo courtesy of News12 Connecticut)
The result was horrendous traffic, throughout Westport.
The Post Road was backed up for miles at rush hour. Alternate routes paralleling I-95, as well as to the Merritt Parkway, were also jammed.
The Post Road, at Wilton Road and Riverside Avenue. (Photo/Craig Bergamo)
Large trucks — including semis — jammed the Post Road. Some headed west on Greens Farms Road, but had to turn right on Imperial Avenue because they could not cross the Cribari Bridge.
That created additional traffic, at the Imperial/Post Road East traffic light.
Officials urge drivers — particularly truckers — to use alternate routes, including I-84 and I-87, if possible. Signs throughout the state, and in New York and Rhode Island, urge motorists to avoid the area.
Another view of the accident and fire. (Facebook screenshot courtesy of Kalin Barber)
An absolute blessing that everyone survived this! Everyone should take a moment and reflect on that and be patient on navigating the roads after.
Catastrophic…
Foreshadowing of what Saugatuck would be like during I95 tieups if the Cribari bridge is enlarged?
Portends what the 911 response and total pre-hospital interval (time to arrival, on scene, & transport time) will probably look like during every I95 backup and bad rush “hour” intervals once the additional ingress/egress and density pressures of the McHamlet impact this already vulnerable equation.
These incidents provide the literate with prophecies written on the wall that must not be ignored.
Dr J
All the more reason why the Cribari replacement will need to support trucks.
You want tractor trailer trucks going through Saugatuck?????
SMH
Today’s crisis is an uncommonly extreme occurrence, but it does seem to portend our future.
The two hour and increasing wait on I-95 shows us two things:
First: today’s crisis is why CTDOT has never altered their stand that a replacement for the Cribari Bridge must be able to carry all the traffic that can travel on I-95. CTDOT wants a feeder road from Exit 19 through Saugatuck.
Second: the short-sighted folly of Westporters advocating for a replacement bridge is apparent. What we experience as unusual today will be this plus all the trucks standing still right now and for the next five(!) days on I-95 with a replacement bridge.
What is not apparent, but nonetheless real, with immediate effects on a large number of Westporters, is air not fit to breathe.
According to the American Lung Association’s report card (released last week) grades our air as among the worst in the country.
https://www.lung.org/research/sota/city-rankings/states/connecticut/fairfield
Bring diesel trucks onto our residential roads and you bring a big load of pollutants and toxic particles.
The impacted, now damaged and dangerous, overpass is set to come down in the next 48 hours. Until then Route 1 as a truck crawl will continue.
Why do tanker trucks always seem to catch fire under overpasses, destroying them?
Beyond a mess for traveling
Took me close to 4 hrs from Westport to my mom’s home in norwalk , and lives between exits 14&15.
Thank goodness no fatalities