By BEN LUNDIN

Staff Reporter

ST. ROSE – A crash on Interstate 10 involving an 18-wheeler on Wednesday morning started what would become a day of chaotic gridlock throughout the River Parish area, and brought traffic to a near halt throughout the morning and afternoon hours.

The 18-wheeler sideswiped a dump truck parked on the shoulder of Eastbound Interstate 10 at mile marker 217.3 over the Bonnet Carre Spillway at approximately 5:30 a.m. The truck toppled onto its side and spilled a shipment of groceries across the highway, causing massive delays for more than nine hours.

The groceries caught on fire immediately following the crash and firefighters from St. Charles Parish were called in to put out the flames. They headed west down Eastbound Interstate 10 to meet the fire quickly, but took nearly six hours to completely extinguished the flames.

The fire burned like trash and would relight after firefighters ran out of water, according to Trooper Ronald Sander of the Louisiana State Police.

Traffic picked up from a snail’s pace to a crawl after Louisiana State Police opened up one lane of the interstate at 11 a.m., and finally began to resume a normal pace at 4 p.m., one hour after the truck and debris were cleared and both lanes were opened.

Louisiana State Police rerouted Eastbound Interstate 10 traffic to Airline Highway immediately after the crash, congesting nearly all roads connecting to the detour. At its worst, traffic was stalled approximately nine miles behind the accident.

Eight patrol units from the St. John Sheriff’s Office were called in by the Louisiana State Police and set up at strategic points throughout St. John Parish to help with traffic control, according to Sgt. Dane Clement of the St. John Sheriff’s Office.

Six were placed along Airline Highway to help detoured motorists, and two others were positioned at Interstate 10 and Highway 51.

Ten accidents in St. John Parish were reported as a direct result of the detour, including an accident involving a cyclist who was struck by a vehicle at the corner of Airline Highway and Highway 51. He was transported to River Parishes Hospital, but police did not know his status.

No one was injured in the crash on Interstate 10.

At nearly the same time the former accident had been cleaned, an oil spill that coated a load of electrical transformers shut down Westbound Interstate 10 near the city line of New Orleans and Metairie. The accident had no effect on River Parish traffic, but brought one of Louisiana’s busiest stretches of highway to a standstill until 11 p.m.

At 4:30 p.m., roughly an hour after the previous incident, a car on Eastbound Interstate 10 flipped over near the Bonnabel Boulevard exit, shutting down two lanes and backing up traffic for nearly four miles.