Commuters on I-79 near Carnegie encountered significant delays this morning following a tractor-trailer accident that restricted traffic to one lane; fortunately, by early afternoon, PennDOT had cleared the scene and lifted all travel restrictions. The early morning hours witnessed the truck overturning, leading to an extensive clean-up operation as produce was strewn across the highway, a PennDOT spokeswoman Nicole Haney and Allegheny County Department of Emergency Services spokeswoman Kasey Reigner informed TribLIVE.
While the accident, which took place just past the Heidelberg exit, caused significant traffic snarls, by just before 1 p.m., lanes had been reopened, said Haney, assuring that normal traffic patterns had resumed, although earlier in the day, images from PennDOT's traffic camera showed the truck on its side with its cargo spilled into the median, a tangled mess that required hours of effort to rectify.
In addition to the traffic disruptions, there was one person transported from the scene of the morning's events, details surrounding their condition or the immediate cause of the crash weren't immediately available however representatives from Allegheny County dispatchers told WTAE that the driver had been able to remove themselves from the vehicle and was subsequently being evaluated by first responders.
