Updated Thursday, 3:34 p.m.
A crash involving several vehicles - including a tractor-trailer - brought traffic on Interstate-84 eastbound between exits 68 and 69 to a halt during the Thursday morning commute.
The highway did not reopen until about 1 p.m. after being closed about six hours earlier. The high speed lanes and median remained closed in both directions into the afternoon while crews from the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and Environmental Services Inc. finished cleaning up a diesel fuel spill, a Tolland Fire Department spokesman said.
State Department of Transportation alerts kept extending the estimated time the highway would be reopened as the Tolland Fire Department, state police and other public safety officials scrambled to work at the scene.
According to a state police accident report, a truck owned by Scranton, PA-based Arley Wholesale Inc. was traveling eastbound on I-84 in the right-hand lane near exit 69. Another truck, owned by FedEx Freight, was traveling eastbound in the center lane.
Both trucks came upon an unrelated crash and began to slow down. The FedEx truck hit a patch of ice, according to an accident report. The other truck hit it and the FedEx truck fell onto its side, a report indicates.
Neither driver - Owen Vincent of East Hartford in the Arley truck and James Patten of Lunenburg, MA in the FedEx truck, was injured, police said.
The entrance ramp to I-84 off Merrow Road was closed and traffic was being diverted through town. State police and local fire police were stationed throughout the center of Tolland and traffic was flowing relatively smoothly, despite a heavy presence of large trucks on the local roads.
Motorists were also generally polite near the Tolland Green while navigating the detours. The DOT traffic alert map indicated an early afternoon reopening of I-84 was possible.
Traffic up Route 30 from Vernon and the exit 67 interchange was flowing smoothly on secondary roads.
