The meteorologists did their job, but people probably didn't pay attention because of the holidays and the fact air temps were in the 50's the day before. The traffic folks in VA apparently couldn't pre-treat the roads with their mixture of chemicals because of the rain before the snow, but who knows if that was actually the case.
The local news had a poll on whether the governor, VDOT, or the drivers were to blame. Like 70% blamed VDOT, 20 the drivers, 10 the governor. So two government entities and the dumbo general public who can't drive even without snow. They're probably all to blame.