BRINKLEY, AR - Interstate 40 near Brinkley, Arkansas looked like a parking lot on Saturday, April 18, 2009.
"Oh, it's been a long, long morning," one frustrated driver told myEyewitnessNews.com.
Candace Marconi and her passenger Emily Boston spent three hours sitting in their car. "It's been terrible," they said, "absolutely terrible."
Three people died in three different wrecks along the highway, a series of collisions that started in a construction zone where traffic was supposed to slow down.
Arkansas State Police say around 1 a.m., 52 year-old Albert Barnes of Brinkley, drove his car into the back of an 18-wheeler and died in the crash.
As troopers worked to clear the roadway, another crash happened around 5 a.m when an 18-wheeler ran into the back of a pick-up truck. A third 18-wheeler was also involved. The impact so hard, the trucks exploded and burned for hours. Two people died in this accident, but investigators have not released their names yet.
"Both sides of the road," says clean-up worker Kim Rolland, "were completely blocked. We saw the remains of the trailers and a lot of smoke. It's a huge mess."
Crews hustled to clean up a giant pile of charred plastic Gatorade bottles, the cargo from one of the trucks. The other truck was carrying car parts to a plant in Mexico. And what was left of a family's travel trailer lay scattered along the road.
"Everybody's just trying to work together," says clean-up worker Bengi Booker, "to get everything cleaned up. You know, it takes everybody to come together to get everything cleaned up and traffic back moving."
10 hours after the last accident and traffic was still at a crawl. Saturday on I-40 a long, difficult day for a lot of people.
"Just slow it down," says truck driver Larry Sulaughter. "And watch what you're doing. I drive a truck every day and I have to slow it down and watch what I'm doing because people will stop in front of you in a minute."
