They wondered why they had not been forced off at Hamilton Mill or why law enforcement had not begun turning traffic around and down the interstate the wrong way back onto Hamilton Mill. Angry motorists started tweeting at our Twitter account as the hours-stuck grew. The jams just compounded as this cleanup continued into the night. Traffic was already slow back to Hamilton Mill (Exit 120) when we left the closure at around 6:15 p.m. We issued a WSB Traffic RED ALERT, a moniker we use for entire freeway shutdowns. We soon arrived overhead and watched crews battle the flames on the trailer of the truck, as they continued to re-ignite. Our Mark McKay started fielding calls about the demolished trucks. WSB Triple Team Traffic’s Mike Shields used our traffic Jam Cam to immediately find the freeway closed and a large conflagration. We pointed the WSB Skycopter in the direction of the melee as soon as we heard of the fire. This shut all lanes on this side of I-85 down for nearly five hours, trapping hundreds of motorists leaving northern Gwinnett County. A helicopter ambulance airlifted the truck driver to Grady Memorial Hospital in Downtown Atlanta and a hazmat crew had to search for and eventually deem the scene clear of any dangerous spills. The big rig also struck and heavily damaged the overhead sign. Just before 6 p.m., a tractor trailer carrying dog food erupted in flames after striking two cars on the I-85/nb exit ramp to Highway 211 (Exit 126) in Barrow County. I-85/northbound was a hot mess last Wednesday night - quite literally.
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