UPDATE: Nine-vehicle interstate pileup injures six

One tractor-trailer driver has been charged and police are searching for another in connection with a Monday afternoon pileup on Interstate 95 that injured six, including a Virginia State Police trooper.

In all, nine vehicles were involved in the chain-reaction crashes, stalling traffic around eastern Prince William County for hours.

State police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said it started about 1:15 p.m. when a white Mercedes broke down in the northbound lanes and the driver pulled to the shoulder near Va. 123.

A Toyota 4Runner pulled over to assist the Mercedes driver and both were sideswiped by a silver Toyota Corolla, she said.

At 1:27 p.m., Trooper E.D. Brown Jr. arrived to investigate the crash. A few minutes later, a Toyota Tundra pickup arrived and the driver – the husband of one of the crash victims – parked in front of the trooper’s cruiser.

At 1:43 p.m., the driver of a Dodge Neon slowed nearing the crash scene and was rear-ended by a tractor-trailer. The Dodge driver then lost control and the car swerved, striking first the police cruiser and then the trooper, Geller said.

The impact of that crash pushed Trooper Brown’s patrol car forward, pinning three of the original crash victims against the guardrail.

After rear-ending the Dodge, the tractor-trailer driver swerved to the left and struck another tractor-trailer and then rear-ended a Toyota Camry. The truck driver hit by the trailer-trailer left the scene and police are looking for him, Geller said.

Trooper Brown and the driver of the 4Runner were flown by helicopter to nearby hospitals for injuries that did not appear to be life-threatening, Geller said.

Four others were treated at Potomac Hospital for minor injuries.

Police identified the people involved as follows:

Mercedes driver: Thanh Tam Thi Phan, 39, of Woodbridge.

Toyota 4Runner driver: Thi Hung Nguyen, 41, of Woodbridge.

Toyota Corolla driver: Kimberly Covey, 22, of Portland, Texas

Toyota Corolla passenger: Mi Chwa Healy, 56, Woodbridge.

Toyota Tundra driver: Dunhill Nguyen, 39, of Woodbridge.

Dodge Neon driver: Tasha Audrey Tully, 25, of Ft. Belvoir.

Dodge Neon passenger: Richard Tully of Ft. Belvoir.

Tractor-trailer driver #1: Donnell Hendricks, 52, of North Carolina.

Toyota Camry driver: Palak Karamshibhai Patel, 28, of Ashburn.]

Police charged Hendricks, the first truck driver, with reckless driving for failure to maintain control due to inadequate brakes. He was not injured in the crash.

Trooper Brown, 30, graduated from the State Police Academy in Richmond in 2003 and has been assigned to Prince William County since 2004, Geller said. 

Communities editor Kari Pugh can be reached at 703-530-3901.