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How Virginia's I-95 fiasco led to a 93-year-old driver's 39-hour odyssey
Inspired Life
How Virginia’s I-95 fiasco led to a 93-year-old driver’s 39-hour odyssey
James Murphy got trapped on an icy Interstate 95 and then got lost. A radio reporter, travel planner, police officer and hotel workers helped him on his way.
James Murphy, a retired orthodontist from Albany, N.Y., ended up on a 39-hour odyssey after hitting overnight backups on Virginia’s Interstate 95 following Monday’s snowstorm. Murphy, 93, said it would have taken longer if not for the strangers who helped him find his way. (Kathleen Murphy)
By Katherine Shaver
January 6, 2022 | Updated January 6, 2022 at 7:58 p.m. EST
At 93, James Murphy usually takes the Amtrak auto train to Florida to escape the Upstate New York winter. But this year, the retired orthodontist headed down Interstate 95 — and into a 39-hour odyssey through Virginia after getting ensnared, alone, in a snowstorm-induced traffic meltdown and lost on backcountry roads with a dwindling gas supply and dying cellphone battery. ... Murphy left Albany, N.Y., about 8:30 a.m. Monday. He didn’t get to sleep again — or eat another meal following a brief Monday lunch break — until almost 11 p.m. Tuesday.
{snip}
After a brief lunch stopover with his daughter in Manhattan, Murphy headed south around 2 p.m. with a couple of Diet Cokes, a big chocolate chip cookie and a small container of peanuts. Kathleen wasn’t thrilled about her father driving solo to Naples, Fla. He’s relatively robust, she said, but has a pacemaker and bad knees. ... “He’s 93,” she said, “but good Lord, we can’t stop him.”
While heading through Northern Virginia on I-95 in the early evening, her father later recounted, he suddenly hit a wall of traffic that would eventually stretch for miles. ... He wouldn’t budge for another 17 hours. ... “There was nowhere to go,” he said. “All I could do was sit there and try to stay warm.”
He passed the time singing along to Tony Bennett’s greatest hits and a collection of Broadway show tunes, including “Hello, Dolly” and “Oklahoma.” Expecting traffic to move again any minute, he fought to stay awake. As the night wore on and temperatures dropped into the teens, he kept his Lincoln sedan running intermittently for heat, then would turn it off to save gas. ... Was he ever bored? Tired? Hungry? ... “Yes,” he said. “But there’s nothing you can do about it, so you just put up with it.”
{snip}
By Katherine Shaver
Katherine Shaver is a transportation and development reporter focusing on urban/suburban planning issues and construction of Maryland's light-rail Purple Line. Since joining The Washington Post in 1997, she also has covered crime, courts, education and local government. Twitter https://twitter.com/shaverk
How Virginia’s I-95 fiasco led to a 93-year-old driver’s 39-hour odyssey
James Murphy got trapped on an icy Interstate 95 and then got lost. A radio reporter, travel planner, police officer and hotel workers helped him on his way.
James Murphy, a retired orthodontist from Albany, N.Y., ended up on a 39-hour odyssey after hitting overnight backups on Virginia’s Interstate 95 following Monday’s snowstorm. Murphy, 93, said it would have taken longer if not for the strangers who helped him find his way. (Kathleen Murphy)
By Katherine Shaver
January 6, 2022 | Updated January 6, 2022 at 7:58 p.m. EST
At 93, James Murphy usually takes the Amtrak auto train to Florida to escape the Upstate New York winter. But this year, the retired orthodontist headed down Interstate 95 — and into a 39-hour odyssey through Virginia after getting ensnared, alone, in a snowstorm-induced traffic meltdown and lost on backcountry roads with a dwindling gas supply and dying cellphone battery. ... Murphy left Albany, N.Y., about 8:30 a.m. Monday. He didn’t get to sleep again — or eat another meal following a brief Monday lunch break — until almost 11 p.m. Tuesday.
{snip}
After a brief lunch stopover with his daughter in Manhattan, Murphy headed south around 2 p.m. with a couple of Diet Cokes, a big chocolate chip cookie and a small container of peanuts. Kathleen wasn’t thrilled about her father driving solo to Naples, Fla. He’s relatively robust, she said, but has a pacemaker and bad knees. ... “He’s 93,” she said, “but good Lord, we can’t stop him.”
While heading through Northern Virginia on I-95 in the early evening, her father later recounted, he suddenly hit a wall of traffic that would eventually stretch for miles. ... He wouldn’t budge for another 17 hours. ... “There was nowhere to go,” he said. “All I could do was sit there and try to stay warm.”
He passed the time singing along to Tony Bennett’s greatest hits and a collection of Broadway show tunes, including “Hello, Dolly” and “Oklahoma.” Expecting traffic to move again any minute, he fought to stay awake. As the night wore on and temperatures dropped into the teens, he kept his Lincoln sedan running intermittently for heat, then would turn it off to save gas. ... Was he ever bored? Tired? Hungry? ... “Yes,” he said. “But there’s nothing you can do about it, so you just put up with it.”
{snip}
By Katherine Shaver
Katherine Shaver is a transportation and development reporter focusing on urban/suburban planning issues and construction of Maryland's light-rail Purple Line. Since joining The Washington Post in 1997, she also has covered crime, courts, education and local government. Twitter https://twitter.com/shaverk
6 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
Plowing the Interstate highway is not a federal function. The plows are sent out by the Virginia Department of Transportation.
Virginia officials apologize to stranded I-95 motorists, defend storm prep amid criticism
BY: GRAHAM MOOMAW - JANUARY 4, 2022 3:34 PM
The view from Interstate 95 near Exit 137.8, south of Fredericksburg, where New York resident Alison Bradshaw was stuck with her family. (Alison Bradshaw via Prince William Times)
A spokeswoman for the Virginia Department of Transportation offered an apology Tuesday to the countless people stranded overnight on Interstate 95 during Monday’s snowstorm. But officials involved in the emergency response insisted there was little they could have done differently to prevent the crisis on a heavily-travelled, 40-mile stretch of highway in Northern Virginia.
“We really understand that people face very stressful, scary situations,” Kelly Hannon, a spokeswoman for VDOT’s Fredericksburg office, told reporters on a conference call. “And we do apologize and we’ll be taking an exhaustive look at this incident.”
Dozens of people trapped on the highway took to social media to share stories about getting stuck in their cars for hours with limited gas, food and water and little information about what was being done to help. Among them was U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., who said he had started what is usually a two-hour drive to Washington early Monday afternoon and was still in the car 19 hours later.
{snip}
A winter storm {stranded} thousands of drivers and passengers on Interstate 95 overnight Monday and into Tuesday. (Virginia Department of Transportation)
{snip}
This post has been updated to add additional remarks from a news conference by the governor later in the day.
GRAHAM MOOMAW
A veteran Virginia politics reporter, Graham grew up in Hillsville and Lynchburg, graduating from James Madison University and earning a master's degree in journalism from the University of Maryland. Before joining the Mercury in 2019, he spent six years at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, most of that time covering the governor's office, the General Assembly and state politics. He also covered city hall and politics at The Daily Progress in Charlottesville. Contact him at gmoomaw@virginiamercury.com
BY: GRAHAM MOOMAW - JANUARY 4, 2022 3:34 PM
The view from Interstate 95 near Exit 137.8, south of Fredericksburg, where New York resident Alison Bradshaw was stuck with her family. (Alison Bradshaw via Prince William Times)
A spokeswoman for the Virginia Department of Transportation offered an apology Tuesday to the countless people stranded overnight on Interstate 95 during Monday’s snowstorm. But officials involved in the emergency response insisted there was little they could have done differently to prevent the crisis on a heavily-travelled, 40-mile stretch of highway in Northern Virginia.
“We really understand that people face very stressful, scary situations,” Kelly Hannon, a spokeswoman for VDOT’s Fredericksburg office, told reporters on a conference call. “And we do apologize and we’ll be taking an exhaustive look at this incident.”
Dozens of people trapped on the highway took to social media to share stories about getting stuck in their cars for hours with limited gas, food and water and little information about what was being done to help. Among them was U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., who said he had started what is usually a two-hour drive to Washington early Monday afternoon and was still in the car 19 hours later.
{snip}
A winter storm {stranded} thousands of drivers and passengers on Interstate 95 overnight Monday and into Tuesday. (Virginia Department of Transportation)
{snip}
This post has been updated to add additional remarks from a news conference by the governor later in the day.
GRAHAM MOOMAW
A veteran Virginia politics reporter, Graham grew up in Hillsville and Lynchburg, graduating from James Madison University and earning a master's degree in journalism from the University of Maryland. Before joining the Mercury in 2019, he spent six years at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, most of that time covering the governor's office, the General Assembly and state politics. He also covered city hall and politics at The Daily Progress in Charlottesville. Contact him at gmoomaw@virginiamercury.com
