This has been on the news all night... Been sitting here thinking of how many times I've driven under this overpass in the last 20 years..... Makes you realize, that it's not always the idiots on the road in front, behind, or beside you that you need to watch.... Of course, in this case, there's no way anyone could have avoided this.

http://www.nbc4.com/traffic/2761942/detail.html

Something similar to this happened in Atlanta a few years ago. A fully loaded tanker truck rear ended a car in the middle of the night. The driver of the car stalled in a center lane and just left it there without hazard lights on. It just so happened that this occurred under the bridge of one of the busiest highway intersections in town (6 lanes crossing 8 lanes). The heat was enough to suspect structural damage to the steel girders and the bridge had to be closed for repairs.

Based on what I've seen of traffic around DC you had better hope a long term shutdown isn't required.

Originally posted by 2ManyZs

Been sitting here thinking of how many times I've driven under this overpass in the last 20 years.....

Wow. I too traveled that stretch many times when I lived north of Baltimore and had to go to DC often. That "random" element of life sure can be scary at times. I spent 15 years doing risk analysis of hazardous installations, and I can tell you that the probability of dieing like that is so small that you might as well not even consider it. But that doesn't help the people that did...