A tractor-trailer accident this morning at the 333 eastbound mile marker of I-40 left traffic backed up for miles for hours.
The crash happened around 7 a.m. when the driver of the 1997 Peterbilt, 36-year-old Karl Traughber of Tennessee, told troopers a pickup truck sideswiped his tractor-trailer forcing him off the interstate. Traughber overcorrected and overturned. The driver of the pickup truck did not stop.
Traughber was injured in the accident.
Traffic was either at a standstill for at least four miles. Many motorists got off the interstate at the Crab Orchard exit and took Highway 70 to Westel to eventually get back on the interstate.
Traffic returned to normal at the scene around 2:30 p.m. today.
