WASHINGTON — The trucker convoy that revved ahead last week is now continuing Tuesday as drivers cruise from across the country to stall traffic in an effort to protest COVID-19 mask and vaccine mandates put in place by the federal government.
DC Police are warning of continued traffic delays for commuters Tuesday.
A "People's Convoy" initially originated in California merged with several other organized convoys of varying sizes that have staggeringly converged in D.C.
The protests have been conducted in a similar fashion to the truck driver protests that halted Canadian government operations in the capital of Ottawa over the last month.
Monday saw demonstrations on I-395, I-695, and I-295 causing notable delays for afternoon commuters. DC Police suggested the metro as an alternative to people struggling to make it to their destination. Police also closed a number of streets and highway exits in an effort to keep traffic moving.
Monday’s delays were the most recent in a string of effects from the convoy over the past few days. Two deaths were confirmed as a result of a three-vehicle crash on I-695 on March 9. MPD told WUSA9 the DPW truck involved in the crash was intentionally parked at Exit 1C to block the trucker convoy from entering the city.
After the crash, the DC Police union spoke out Monday in a letter, pleading for more protection and regard for officers’ safety ahead of the convoy’s progression.
The police department is currently operating under a mandate that members staff posts on highways, bridges, tunnels and streets 24 hours a day in 12-hour shifts, according to the union.
“After this collision which confirmed what members feared the most while staffing these stationary highway traffic details, members became increasingly worried that another collision could take place and possibility end with someone being gravely injured or even killed,” a spokesperson for the union wrote in a letter to Chief Robert Contee. “Members began to voice their concerns to managers [who] dismissed their safety concerns of being stationary on highways after dark and without emergency equipment and where motor vehicles were traveling at high rates of speeds, undoubtedly becoming disastrous.”
The letter goes on to directly call out both Commander Robert Glover and Chief Jeffery Carroll and asks that they are ultimately held accountable for their "inaction."
WUSA9 reached out to MPD for a response to the union's statement and has yet to receive a response.