WFMJ.com News weather sports for Youngstown-Warren OhioSemi truck accident causes shutdown of I-80 West in Hubbard

Semi truck accident causes shutdown of I-80 West in Hubbard

HUBBARD, Ohio - A semi truck accident on Interstate 80 stopped traffic for most of the day Wednesday.

The shutdown lasted at least until late afternoon, affecting countless drivers passing through the Valley.

It was closed after the accident at 4:30 a.m. and the east bound lane opened a few hours later.

The closure of the west bound lane caused traffic problems for thousands of motorists.

"From I-79 to here it took me two hours," said Carol Clapp of Erie.  Normally, the drive takes less than 20 minutes. "I was parked more than we were driving. It was terrible."

Anyone coming into Ohio from I-80 was diverted onto Route 62 at the Hubbard exit.

"There's no detour signs, no nothing," added Adam Duckworth of Washington, N.J. He and his family are traveling to an ironman competition in Wisconsin. "So we have my little cell phone GPS and we're going to try and let it guide us back to the road somewhere."

At the Shell truck world gas station, most of the cars in the lot had out-of-state license plates.

"We've had a lot of people wondering where they can go," said Shell Truck World employee Amanda Maier. "They had Route 7 shutdown and needing directions. We had our slow periods but we did get a lot more business today from that."

As of 4:00 p.m. the west bound lanes of I-80 were still closed.