VIDEO: Arkansas Department of Transportation crews took over 24 hours to clear all lanes along I-30 westbound after a fiery, fatal, multi-vehicle crash happened on Wednesday.
There were 20 vehicles involved in the accident, which also included eight semi trucks. The accident happened near mile marker 86 along I-30 westbound and it resulted in three fatalities. Traffic was backed up for hours and was at a standstill until shortly after 6:00 p.m. on Thursday.
"Looking at that road, we had to get all of the damaged trucks off the interstate. The final damaged truck was removed sometime around 7 or 8 this morning," said Dave Parker with ARDOT. Parker said that the crash started as a two car accident, but in the aftermath of that incident having backed up traffic, a second crash involving semi-trucks came around 15 to 20 minutes later. And the second accident caused a large fire to erupt.
"The pavement, it literally melted and buckled. So, to reopen it safely we've got to get in there," said Parker.