Rain Brings Friday Commute Headaches, 10-Mile Backup
DETROIT (WWJ) As rain came down in metro Detroit during the early Friday commute, the brake lights came on and major traffic tie-ups emerged on just about every local freeway.
Here's a synopsis:
*Westbound I-94 was closed at 8:30 a.m. between Warren and 8 Mile Road in Detroit due to an accident. Traffic was backed up all the way to Morningside in Grosse Pointe Woods. All lanes had reopened by around 10 a.m.
*Southbound I-75 in Detroit, after 7 Mile Road, had an overturned vehicle in effect at 7:15 a.m., with the left three lanes blocked. There was stop-and-go traffic all the way from Rochester Road in Oakland County as commuters struggled to get to work on time. It was 10-mile back up, with traffic getting by in the two right lanes.
*Eastbound I-96 near Milford Road had an accident in the construction zone. Traffic was backed up nearly to US 23.
*Westbound I-696 was slow from about Southfield Road, back to Woodward in Royal Oak -- another nearly 10-mile backup -- as a result of an accident that blocked two lanes. The ramp to Coolidge was closed. The cause of the crash was a semi-truck that jack-knifed, busting through a concrete median and strewing debris across the roadway.
WWJ News Radio's Vickie Thomas had advice for those caught on I-696, like she was Friday morning."If you're in that backup, you want to take the next exit," Thomas said, adding it took her 40 minutes to travel one mile on I-696, from Lincoln to Coolidge in Oakland County. "It's a real mess out here."
One morning commuter said it took her two hours to drive from Warren to Southfield. "It was ridiculous. If you think that taking a mile road might be a good strategy, you might want to think again," she told WWJ, adding that it was still bad out there at 10 a.m. "Personally, I would recommend just not going anywhere."
