GREENFIELD TOWNSHIP -- A crash involving two trucks closed a section of Interstate 81 in Lackawanna County Tuesday morning.
Interstate 81 north was closed from around 8:30 a.m. until about 1 p.m. Tuesday.
State police are still investigating the crash and whether any charges will be filed.
The crash involved a tractor trailer and a box truck.
Crews spent most of the morning cleaning up the contents of two trucks that spilled over the northbound lanes of Interstate 81 just south of the Susquehanna County line.
Troopers say a white box truck was traveling south near the Fleetville exit and having some kind of mechanical problem. The driver was going slow and had the flashers on. The red tractor trailer rear-ended the box truck, both crossed into opposite lanes, and both drivers were hurt
And a hectic morning commute commenced.
"We got off here because we needed gas, so I'm glad we did instead of getting hung up and sitting there and burning the gas we had," said a driver from Delaware.
Several miles of traffic backup meant a gas station about six miles away in Scott Township became a place where stranded travelers could compare detours.
"It was backed up there and we had to make a choice that we were either getting in the traffic or coming off, and we did, but we've been sitting down the road trying to figure out how to get (the mobile app) Waze," said a driver from New York.
Many drivers relied on mobile apps and GPS to get them around the mess; many others sat until the mess was cleaned up.
Troopers say the tractor trailer was carrying paper and the box truck was carrying dried sea kelp. It took until the afternoon to clear the lanes.
Newswatch 16 has done several stories on a special kind of media barrier that PennDOT puts in to prevent crashes like this on. Those barriers are along other parts of Interstate 81. PennDOT says there aren't any immediate plans to add them to the part in question in northern Lackawanna County.
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