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Thanks to an alert tractor-trailer driver, a father and his two children were rescued from a single-vehicle traffic crash Sunday night (Dec. 20) along Interstate 95 near the Interstate 895/Pocahontas Parkway interchange.

Shortly before 6:30 p.m. Sunday, a 2001 Saturn ran off I-95 to the right, went over the guardrail and down a 30-foot embankment into a creek. The car landed upside down in the creek bottom with the driver and his 5-year-old twin children, a boy and girl, trapped inside.

The tractor-trailer driver, Joseph M. Weavil of Kernersville, N.C., happened to see the car as it went over the guardrail. Weavil called State Police to report the crash and stopped to try and assist the overturned vehicle.

Virginia State Police Sgt. Chris Clark quickly arrived and with Weavil's assistance was lowered down the steep embankment to the car. Clark was able to break out a window and rescue the father and young children trapped inside.

Weavil waited up on I-95 for EMS services to arrive and guided them to Clark and the injured occupants. The father and twins were transported by ambulance to VCU Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries.

"Because the car landed at the bottom of the steep embankment and was in no way visible from the Interstate, there's no telling how long this crash would have gone unnoticed if it had not been for Mr. Weavil witnessing it," said Sgt. Clark, Virginia State Police Area 8 Office. "The quick actions of Mr. Weavil and his assistance in the rescue during the snowstorm undoubtedly made the difference between life and death for these individuals."

The crash was investigated by Trooper S. E. Bass. As a result of Bass' investigation, Kevin E. Walker, 37, of Chesterfield, was arrested for driving under the influence and two felony counts of child endangerment.