WASHINGTON — The driver of a tractor-trailer who died in a fiery crash on the Woodrow Wilson Bridge last week has been identified as a 60-year-old New Jersey man.
Maryland State Police said Rodell Jones, of Bordentown, New Jersey, was driving a 2016 truck tractor and towing an empty 53-foot box trailer owned by JB Hunt Transport when he crashed into a crash-attenuator truck and then a bucket truck in a work zone on the Outer Loop lanes of the Wilson Bridge June 20.
The crash engulfed the trucks, spread to a pickup truck parked on the shoulder, and sent thick clouds of billowing black smoke that led officials to close down Inner Loop lanes for several hours.
Witnesses likened the crash to an explosion or to a bomb going on off.
Jones was pronounced dead at the scene and was identified by the medical examiner through dental records, state police said.
Seven other people were injured in the crash. Most were treated and released, although one person was taken to the hospital.
The crash, which came shortly before 11 a.m., snarled traffic across the D.C. region for 12 hours.
After the crash, three workers who were working in a bucket underneath the bridge were left stranded and had to be rescued by boat by members of the Prince George’s County police department.
Authorities are still investigating the crash. They said they don’t know why the truck barreled into the work zone, which was properly marked along the left shoulder on the northbound through lanes of Interstate 95/Interstate 495.
