Traffic snarled along Capitol Beltway after fiery wreck

An accident Sunday involving three vehicles caused 15 injuries and snarled Capitol Beltway traffic for miles

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Traffic was snarled for miles Sunday after the Capitol Beltway was closed for hours when a tractor trailer hit a car and sent the vehicle into the rear of a tour bus.

Fifteen people were injured, said Lucy Caldwell, a spokeswoman for the Virginia State Police, but none received life-threatening injuries.

The three vehicles were sandwiched together after the accident and engulfed in flames. "They completely burned out," Caldwell said.

The accident occurred shortly after 2 p.m. on what is called the inner loop of the beltway, near Springfield, Virginia. The beltway runs around the Washington metro area and traffic spills from it onto I-95 to the south and the north.

"It's a mess," Caldwell said of traffic. "Traffic is very congested even on a Sunday."

Caldwell said a preliminary investigation suggested the truck driver was at fault. She said he came upon slowing traffic and failed to stop in time, hitting the car, which then hit the tour bus. The tour bus was heading from Quebec to Orlando, Florida. Twelve of the injured came from the tour bus. The truck driver and the two occupants of the car were also injured.

Both the inner loop and the outer loop of the beltway, Caldwell said, was closed for two and a half hours as the vehicles burned. The outer loop has been reopened, and authorities hope to have at least two lanes of the inner loop opened Sunday evening.

Caldwell said the wreckage should be cleared by 9 p.m.

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