WHITE HAVEN, Pa. — An overturned tractor-trailer hauling hazardous waste caused a major traffic headache for drivers in Luzerne County.
All lanes on Interstate 80 westbound between the White Haven exit and the Mountain Top exit shut down around midnight.
"Normally, if it's closed, it's five or six hours at the most, but this is extreme," said Bill Kuklis, Freeland Fire Department engineer.
State police say a tractor-trailer lost control and crashed in the area of Dennison Township.
Another tractor-trailer that hit the overturned SUV was also involved in the crash.
The driver of the SUV was pulled from the vehicle and flown to the hospital with serious injuries.
Two other people were taken to the hospital but have since been released.
Officials with D.E.P. say the tractor-trailer was carrying material that contained asbestos which spilled all over the highway.
Crews worked throughout the day to clean up that hazardous material and properly get rid of it.
Traffic backed up as drivers were forced to detour through Freeland.
"Most of them, yeah, they're asking what's going on and how long it's going to be. I tell 'em it's basically going to be all afternoon. It's gonna happen," said Michele Yakscoe of Freeland.
The Freeland Fire Department was on traffic control at the intersection of Center and South Street starting at midnight, making a makeshift sign alerting drivers they're on the right detour, even though it's the only detour to get back on the highway.
"It's impacted the town with traffic. We normally don't get this much traffic through here, but when you dump an interstate onto a small road, this is what happens. And this is the emergency route before I-80 and 81 whenever the interstate is blocked off in Whitehaven or in that area," explained Kuklis.
"Without being able to get out of town and look, our best guess is about a mile of backlog coming out of town, we've been trying to relieve it the best we can, but with one light in a one square mile town, it's hard to relieve that much traffic," said Nicholas Heffelfinger, Freeland Fire Department Captain.
DEP handled the clean-up efforts all day, and state police are investigating what caused this crash.
Even though the interstate has reopened, PennDOT officials say drivers should still expect some traffic delays.
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