CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Traffic is flowing normally again between the Mahan and Mossy exits of the West Virginia Turnpike. It took emergency crews and a specialized cleanup team close to 24 hours to remove the wreckage of a truck hauling thousands of gallons of an adhesive material which crashed in the area.

The crash happened Sunday afternoon around 1 p.m. in the northbound lanes. The semi was hauling 17 individual totes of the material. The truck crashed partially over the median wall and caused traffic to be disrupted in both directions of the highway.

“The wall remained stable and there was minor damage to it, but parts of the tractor trailer and some of the substance actually went over the wall and into the south bound lanes of traffic,” said Parkways Authority Executive Director Jeff Miller.

Miller said the location of the accident is one where they’ve had other accidents in the past. The area was such a problem a few years ago they raised the height of the median barrier.

“We’ve identified this as a high accident area and that’s why we went in and increased the height of the barrier wall, which was a good thing. Our proactive safety approach possibly saved lives,” he explained.

However, Miller said the cause of the accident was driver error and most likely speeding.

“We do all we can, but it simply comes down to people speeding on this roadway. We always try and urge people to be cautious,” he said.

Fortunately the material the truck was hauling did not spill into nearby Paint Creek. The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection was on hand to oversee the cleanup which was finally wrapped up around noon Monday, almost 24 hours after the accident.

The truck was owned and operated by J & K Transporters, LLC, of Staley, North Carolina. The load was being transported from Greensboro, North Carolina, to Stow, Ohio.