A truck carrying glass overturned on Interstate 80 in New Jersey, spilling its cargo across the highway and forcing officials to shut down all of the eastbound lanes. The rollover turned a busy stretch of one of the state's main highways into a hazard-strewn closure during the morning.
The crash happened on the eastbound side of I-80, near exit 58. Aerial coverage of the scene showed the overturned truck and the aftermath of its load, with broken glass scattered widely across the roadway.
As a traffic reporter surveying the scene from above put it, the glass had shattered into countless pieces all over the interstate. That spread of debris across the lanes was at the heart of the problem, making the highway unsafe to travel until it could be cleared.
With the truck down and glass everywhere, all lanes were shut on the eastbound side. Rather than let traffic push through the wreckage, officials diverted vehicles off the highway at exit 58, sending the morning's drivers onto local roads to get around the closure.
State troopers were on scene managing the response, visible near the overturned truck as crews began the work of dealing with the spill. Clearing a highway covered in shattered glass is a slow and delicate job, and the closure was expected to remain in place while that cleanup went on.
The timing offered at least one small break. Because the incident came on a holiday-weekend morning, traffic volume was lighter than a typical weekday rush, which helped keep the backup from growing as quickly as it otherwise might have.
Even so, delays were building as drivers navigated around the closed lanes. Coming as the region deals with an intense heat wave and the buildup to the Fourth of July, the shutdown added a headache for anyone traveling on I-80, with motorists urged to expect delays and seek alternate routes while the scene was cleared.