Commuters faced a nightmare on the Kennedy Expressway early Tuesday morning when a driver going in the wrong direction collided with a garbage truck, tying up traffic for miles. The head-on crash, happening near North Avenue and Armitage Avenue, sent the driver of the passenger vehicle southbound into a hospital, while crews scrambled to clear the wreck and a resulting fuel spill.

The chaos unfolded at around 5:48 a.m., causing authorities to shut down all outbound lanes of the expressway, prompting heavy delays for hours. ABC7 Chicago reported there were no life-threatening injuries in the incident that created a bottleneck for thousands of morning commuters.

According to the Illinois State Police, while driving on the northbound ramp, the passenger vehicle went head-on into a garbage truck. NBC 5 Traffic Reporter Jen DeSalvo noted traffic was still sluggish even after lanes reopened at 7:15 a.m., and recommended alternative routes for drivers looking to dodge the traffic jam.

After about an hour and a half of closures and painstaking cleanup efforts, the Illinois Department of Transportation confirmed the expressway was fully operational again. Regardless, heavy traffic remained, snarled by the earlier accident and onlookers slowing to catch a glimpse of the cleanup operation, with emergency vehicles crowding the scene.

In the aftermath, officials are urging motorists to remain vigilant on the roads and to seek alternate routes in the wake of the crash. Commuters were advised to take the outbound Eisenhower Expressway or DuSable Lake Shore Drive to avoid further delays as the normalcy of rush hour on the Kennedy inched back after the morning's disruption.