Commuters faced a grueling morning on I-55 near Bolingbrook Tuesday, as an overturned semi caused significant traffic snarls, ABC 7 Chicago reported. The accident, which occurred just before the break of dawn, at approximately 12:27 a.m., involved a semi striking a concrete median barrier and rolling over, blocking two left lanes and leading to substantial delays for those heading northbound toward Joliet Road and I-355.
The aftermath of the crash saw lanes remain closed well into the morning hours with Chopper 7 footage showing the extent of the closure near the Veterans Parkway and Joliet Road around 6:49 a.m., as per NBC Chicago, the disruption stretched over six miles, leaving drivers searching for alternate routes to evade the extended backups and the delay added a considerable amount of time to the usual morning commute.
The driver of the semi, which had been hauling cauliflower, was taken to the hospital with undisclosed injuries, while there were no reports of any other vehicles being involved in the incident. While investigating the cause of the crash, Illinois State Police had yet to release the condition of the injured driver.
A further complication to the traffic issue was a fuel spill, reported by Total Traffic and mentioned by NBC Chicago; the spill added another layer to the cleanup efforts as hazardous materials teams were called in to contain and clean the leaked fuel, and crews worked diligently to unload the trailer and upright it, hefty delays ensued and continued well past the typical morning rush hour, inflicting major inconvenience on I-55 users.
