Rain, not trucker protest, slows D.C.-area traffic

Traffic on the Capital Beltway around Washington was slow on Friday, but the culprits were largely steady rain and a heavy volume of weekday commuters, not a purported 3-day rolling protest by independent truckers.

Video cams occasionally showed three trucks rolling side by side, clogging up cars and other trucks behind them, but the Beltway otherwise keep truckin'.

At one point, according to the Virginia State Police, four commercial vehicles slowed traffic to 15 mph after the drivers rode side-by-side across all four northbound lanes of I-495 in Virginia. Police pulled the drivers over and warned them not to impede traffic.

"No summons/ticket was issued," police said in a statement. "The tractor-trailers were then allowed to proceed on their way," officials said in a news release, WUSA-TV reports.

Although organizers of the "Ride for the Constitution" said thousands -- perhaps as many as 10,000 -- trucks would take part, at mid-morning, only about 30 or so tractor-trailers were spotted on the Inner Loop of the Beltway that circles Washington through Maryland and Virginia, according to Corinne N. Geller, spokesperson for the Virginia Department of Transportation.

Many of the trucks bore the official Twitter hashtag of the ride -- #T2SDA -- which stands for "Truckers to Shut Down America."

"They're traveling with the flow of traffic, which is slow due to the heavy volume and weather conditions," she said in a statement. "Still no incidents to report."

The protest -- aimed at seeking to impeach President Obama and pressure Congress -- was beset by conflicting messages and tactics.

Organizers said sympathetic demonstrations by veterans and Tea Party supporters were also planned in various state capitals and on highway overpasses.

Drivers had planned to occupy three lanes of Interstate 495, driving 55 mph, with the fourth lane kept clear for emergency vehicles and supporters. Only motorists displaying the group's Twitter hashtag on their vehicles were going to be allowed to pass, organizers said, adding that the protest would be peaceful and lawful.

Trucker Earl Lee, a coordinator, told Fox News on Thursday that 10,000 truckers were headed to Washington. He said three, eight-hour driving shifts were planned, with a possibility that the protest would continue Monday, the Columbus Day holiday.

Lee cautioned drivers to obey all traffic laws.

"You got to stay legal; we don't want any illegal activity," he said, adding that "none of you guys want tickets or points on your CDL (commercial driver's license) either.

"We don't want any incidents, and no accidents," Lee said. "We want no negative coverage whatsoever."

Launched in September as "Truckers to Shut Down America" (T2SDA), the protest envisioned that "potentially hundreds of thousands of truckers and millions of citizens" would come to Washington in a "very symbolic display of solidarity" to "restore our Constitutional Republic." As word spread through Twitter and Facebook, the group changed the event's name but kept the hashtag.

The truckers have a long list of grievances and outrages. Most are political with some focused on trucking issues, including wages, fuel costs and regulations. On Friday, they planned to present a list of "U.S. Citizens demands" to Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, at the National World War II Memorial.

Zeeda Andrews, conservative activist and co-organizer, is a Tennessean, former country music singer and conservative patriot who lives in Jacksonville. She has actively called for Obama to be impeached.

"We want the president of the United States removed from office," she told Fox News' Greta Van Susteren. "He's a threat to our national security, he's a threat to our way of life, he's a threat to our future generations."

A fundamentalist Christian, Andrews has said she opposes Islam and believes the president is a Muslim and "the Antichrist." She also disputes official explanations for the Sept. 11 and Boston Marathon terror attacks.