WASHINGTON — A woman asking police for directions around a multi-vehicle crash in Annandale was charged after a trooper saw a "large amount of marijuana" in her vehicle, police said.
Around 7:40 a.m. Thursday, as Virginia State Police were investigating and trying to clear the multi-vehicle crash that sent six to the hospital, a vehicle drove into the closed scene at the 52 mile marker.
Police said a Virginia trooper stopped the vehicle to prevent it from driving into the crash scene. As the driver asked the trooper for directions on how to get around the accident, police said the trooper saw a large amount of marijuana "in plain view."
A further investigation yielded around 3.5 oz of marijuana and a "large quantity" of marijuana "edibles" from inside the vehicle, police said.
Samantha Markos, 34, of Temple Hills, Md., was charged with reckless driving and distribution of marijuana with intent to distribute, police said. Markos was taken to Fairfax County Adult Detention Center.
The incident remains under investigation.
Police said the wrong-way driver who caused a chain reaction crash in Annandale Thursday morning has been charged with a DUI.
The crash stopped all traffic on the main lanes of the Inner Loop in Annandale, Virginia State Police officials said.
The four-vehicle collision happened on the Inner Loop just before Little River Turnpike/Exit 52 around 3 a.m. Officials said a wrong-way driver was traveling south in the northbound lanes on I-495 near Braddock Road. Within seconds, the wrong-way driver hit another vehicle head-on.
Police said the crashes caused debris from the damaged vehicles to scatter along the northbound lanes on I-495. Two other northbound vehicles hit the debris from the first crash. Then, a third vehicle hit one of the crashed vehicles, which caused one of those vehicles to hit two pedestrians, police said.
These pedestrians were from the already damaged vehicles, and had gotten out of their vehicles after the initial crash.
Police said six patients were transported to a nearby hospital for treatment. One of them is being treated for life-threatening injuries. The driver, an adult Fairfax County man, was transported to Inova Fairfax Hospital for treatment of non-life threatening injuries
Fairfax County Fire and Rescue units responded, along with Virginia State Police, officials said.
