STAFFORD COUNTY, Virginia — Two people, an adult and a child under the age of five, were killed in a rollover crash on Interstate 95 in Stafford County in the early hours of Friday, November 6, a crash that closed every northbound lane of the East Coast's busiest highway for hours and, according to WUSA9, ended with a speeding driver charged with driving under the influence.

The crash happened on the northbound side of I-95 at mile marker 141, just north of Exit 140, where Route 630 — Courthouse Road — crosses the interstate, according to the Virginia Department of Transportation's Fredericksburg District. VDOT closed all northbound lanes at the crash site and also shut the on-ramp to I-95 northbound from Courthouse Road at Exit 140.

Source: Virginia Department of Transportation, Fredericksburg District

Two dead, and a DUI charge, police reporting says

WUSA9 reported that two people died in the crash and that the investigation was causing significant delays on the corridor. In its reporting on the rollover, the station said a speeding driver in a Dodge Charger has been charged with DUI. The charge is an allegation: the driver has not been convicted, and officials had not publicly released the names of the driver or of the two people killed as of Friday morning. In line with standard practice, the child who died is being identified only by age — under five years old.

Source: WUSA9

The overnight closure and the detour drivers were sent on

In an update issued at 3:02 a.m. on Friday, VDOT directed all northbound traffic off the interstate at Exit 140. The official detour took drivers along Hospital Center Boulevard to Route 1 northbound, rejoining I-95 northbound at Exit 143, the Aquia/Garrisonville interchange. VDOT warned travellers to expect delays on Route 1 northbound and on the secondary roads around the Exit 140 interchange while the closure lasted.

Source: Potomac Local, reporting VDOT updates

By 7:09 a.m. on Friday, the Virginia Department of Transportation confirmed that all northbound lanes at mile marker 141 were open again and the Exit 140 detour had been lifted, Potomac Local reported. WJLA also reported the closure of all northbound lanes in Stafford County during the morning. Drivers were pointed throughout the incident to 511 Virginia for live lane-closure information.

Why this stretch of I-95 matters

Interstate 95 is the main north–south artery of the US East Coast, and the Stafford County stretch, between Fredericksburg and the Washington, D.C., suburbs around Quantico, carries a heavy mix of long-distance trucks, military commuters and intercity traffic at all hours of the night. A full northbound closure on this segment pushes thousands of vehicles onto Route 1, the older parallel highway, and onto local roads that were never built for interstate volumes — which is why even a pre-dawn crash here is felt across the whole Fredericksburg region by the morning rush.

This exact interchange has seen a fatal highway crash before. On September 3, 2026, a Maryland tractor-trailer driver, identified by Virginia State Police as Derek P. Volkmer, 40, of Glen Burnie, died after his rig left I-95 northbound at the Exit 140 area and struck the Courthouse Road overpass, closing the northbound lanes for hours that day as well. Friday's rollover is a separate crash, at a separate time, and there is no indication the two are connected in any way.

What happens next

The crash remains under investigation, and the criminal case arising from the reported DUI charge will move through the Stafford County courts. Police reporting so far has not named the driver who was charged or the two people who died; those details, and the findings on how the rollover happened, are expected to come from Virginia authorities as the investigation proceeds. This report will be updated when officials release them.