Travel Nightmare on I-95: 'Every Snowbird' on the Road

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WSAV) - A travel nightmare for some traveling up and down I-95 Thursday, the major connector of the east coast that runs directly through Effingham, Chatham, and several other lower Georgia counties.

"Every snowbird who lives in the United States is on I-95 right now," said traveler Richard Santorini.

Bumper-to-bumper traffic, packed rest stops, and slow movement are some of the woes drivers say they encountered on one of America’s busiest highways.

“I was supposed to be at this welcome center 45 minutes ago,” Santorini told News 3 around 11:20 a.m. Thursday.

Richard Santorini is driving from Poughkeepsie, N.Y. back home to Sarasota, Fla., making a stop at the I-95 Georgia Welcome Center in Port Wentworth. He told News 3 that he started his journey Wednesday night, driving to Virginia where he stayed overnight.

“We took 81, 17 across, then I-95. That’s where the nightmare began,” said Santorini.

He says the coastal trip is normally 20 hours, but on Thursday he had to tack on five extra for the traffic. Although there were not many accidents on his trip south, Santorini told News 3 that the reason for the bad traffic was simple: too many people on the roads.

“You have a lot of snowbirds traveling, pulling their trailers, and they’re going in the left lane and then it’s a chain reaction, everyone is hitting their breaks so it’s a chain reaction for miles, and then you have the oncoming traffic, and the tractor trailers pulling over for them, and then they can’t shift through their gears fast enough, so it takes forever,” says Santorini.

The Weather Channel confirmed this in a report Thursday morning, saying since there was not any severe weather in the greater Savannah area that day, the traffic can be chalked up to excessive road travel.

Santiori tells News 3 that he makes the drive to and from New York every Christmas, but this one will be his last.

“This is the last time I will ever do it. I’m done. I’m flying. No more driving.”

The official end of the holiday travel season is Wednesday, Jan. 3.