Traffic is flowing freely again on Highway 365 in south Habersham after a section of the road was shut down for ten hours.
All four lanes were closed just south of Duncan Bridge Road after a tanker truck loaded with gasoline overturned Friday morning. The tanker was loaded with 9,000 gallons of fuel. Emergency officials spent the day rerouting traffic and helping private companies offload the gasoline.
The Georgia State Patrol identifies the truck driver as 32-year-old Lawrence Charles Rogers of Athens. He was driving a 2012 Volvo VN tractor trailer northbound when he says a deer ran out in front of him. Rogers says he swerved to miss the deer and came up behind a garbage truck. He braked and swerved again to avoid impact. The truck ran off the road into the median where it overturned.
Rogers suffered minor injuries, according to the State Patrol. He was taken by ambulance to Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville for treatment.
The investigating Trooper charged Rogers with failure to maintain lane.
Multiple state and local agencies responded to the scene and helped manage the traffic nightmare. Access to area businesses was limited and travel around the crash site was slow as motorists made their way through detours on their early morning commute.
Regina Morrow says it took her husband an hour and twenty minutes to drive six miles from Mud Creek at Crane Mill to Level Grove Road.
Her son had even more trouble trying to get from Alto to Habersham Central High School.
“My child didn’t get to school this morning. The traffic was at a standstill. When he was able to turn around at a red light, he came home,” she says.
School buses were delayed in picking up and delivering students to school.
Habersham County School Superintendent Matthew Cooper says Habersham EMA immediately notified the school system’s transportation director after the wreck happened. They rerouted buses around the accident.
Many commuters reported to Now Habersham they were late to work because of the accident. Traffic delays dissuaded others and who called out of work.
The wreckage was cleared by mid-afternoon and all lanes of Highway 365 were reopened by 3:45 p.m. Friday.
