Holiday Weekend Starts With Multiple Wrecks on I-85

Traffic is back to normal after the long holiday weekend and local authorities report most of the weekend was relatively quiet, but it didn’t start that way.

Gridlock on the Interstate greeted most holiday motorists Friday beginning with a major wreck near Exit 177.

Trooper Smith tells WNEG News at about 2a Friday morning a truck pulling a multi-vehicle trailer on I-85 northbound tried to pass a similar tractor-trailer at the 177 mile marker.

As he attempted to pass in the left lane, the driver hit the truck in the right lane.

That caused him to lose control and drive off into the center median where the tractor-trailer overturned.

That driver suffered minor injuries and was treated at the scene and released.

No charges will be filed against either driver because of a lack of evidence at the scene.

The names of the drivers and the companies they were hauling for will not be released, according to the GSP Hartwell Post until their investigation is complete.

That wreck had traffic on I-85 northbound at a standstill for miles until about noon Friday.

And while that wreck was being investigated, another accident happened at mile marker 174 northbound.

Corporal Nick Jenkins of the Hartwell Post said in that case a vehicle failed to stop in time and hit the back of a box truck that was stopped in traffic.

There were no injuries and the driver of the sedan was charged with failing to yield.

By 2p Friday, both wrecks were cleared and traffic was flowing, but not before another 18-wheeler ran off the road at mile marker 168 in Franklin County on I-85 northbound.

No injuries reported in that incident, but traffic was backed up for a time.

And it just got worse from there when yet another 18-wheeler overturned in the northbound lane of the Interstate at Exit 173, the Lavonia exit.

That happened about 3p Friday which shut down both sides of the interstate as crews worked to get the big rig upright and off the freeway.

Motorists were being routed off the Interstate through downtown Lavonia to Highway 59 which made the 173 interchange and the downtown area a parking lot for hours.

Things began to clear out and the Interstate was back open around 7p Friday evening.