Five-car crash closes lanes on I-440 in Raleigh, snarls commute

Three eastbound lanes on I-440 shut near the New Bern Avenue exit in Raleigh just before the evening commute Thursday after a five-car crash jammed one of Wake County’s busiest traffic loops.

Raleigh police said no major injuries were reported, but the wreck still created a long delay on the Beltline. The North Carolina Department of Transportation estimated the scene would not be cleared until 8:27 p.m., and tow trucks were headed in as traffic backed up through east Raleigh.

The timing made the crash especially disruptive. It happened just before 5:30 p.m., when drivers were already funneling home across the city’s main commuter corridors. Even without serious injuries, a closure that takes out three eastbound lanes on Interstate 440 can ripple quickly across local streets, especially around the New Bern Avenue interchange, where traffic is already heavy.

The crash also landed in a corridor with known transportation pressure points. NCDOT says parts of the I-440 improvement corridor have substandard design elements, including poor sight lines, narrow shoulders and medians, and short acceleration and deceleration lanes. Those conditions can leave little room for error when traffic is moving at rush-hour speeds and drivers are trying to merge near a busy exit.

New Bern Avenue adds another layer to the problem. City of Raleigh planning materials describe the corridor as a long-standing and important east Raleigh route shaped by growth pressure for decades. That means a crash on I-440 near the exit does not just slow the highway itself; it can also push delays onto nearby roads used by commuters crossing east Raleigh.

Drivers were advised to use alternate routes while the lanes were closed. NCDOT’s DriveNC service tracks road closures, accidents, congestion and work zones in real time, and the agency’s Traffic Safety Unit also maintains crash maps and location-based safety data that help show where collisions cluster across the state.

For Raleigh commuters, the scene was a reminder that even a crash without major injuries can still carry a long aftershock when it happens on the Beltline at the height of rush hour.