Friday, May 8 was a pretty typical morning rush hour. We had some scattered issues throughout the morning, but overall it was lighter than normal rush hour as most Friday mornings are.
After my last traffic hit on WSB Radio at 9:06 a.m., I recorded a couple of interviews for my talk show, recorded a couple of commercials and I was out the door a little before 10 a.m. My weekend had started and I was excited.
I left the station and stopped my one of my favorite little spots for breakfast. I was sipping on some peach/orange juice perusing the menu trying to decide between an omelet and pancakes when my cell phone started vibrating. It was a call from work and I let out a sigh, thinking I forgot to do something before I left for the weekend.
The call was from the 4 p.m. producer for WSBTV. She asked if I was still in the building because they were getting reports of trouble on Interstate 285. I told her that sorry, I had already left.
Two minutes later my phone buzzed again. Same producer, different story. Plane down on I-285. I downed my juice and headed back to the station.
As I’m sure you know it was the fatal plane crash on I-285 at Peachtree Industrial Boulevard. As soon as I got to the station my sources on the scene told me that four people died and that all lanes of I-285 would be blocked for up to eight hours.
An eight hour closure of I-285 would lead smack dab in the middle of the Friday evening rush hour, historically the worst rush hour of the week.
During my first traffic reports on TV, I warned commuters that this was going to quickly become a traffic nightmare stretching all across the metro area. With I-285 closed in both directions halfway between GA 400 and Interstate 85 the delays and repercussions would be severe. I urged drivers to head home early to avoid what was expected to be a gridlock alert through the afternoon.
The first responders and investigators did an amazing job on the scene of the tragic incident. After a couple of hours, authorities were able to reopen the eastbound lanes of I-285 offering great relief for commuters traveling between Cobb County and Gwinnett County.
Five hours after the crash, the westbound of lanes were reopened, a full three hours earlier than expected.
We weren’t quite sure what would happen to traffic after that so I stayed doing traffic reports on radio and television until after 6 p.m.
Thankfully a lot of people took our advice to leave work early and the Friday afternoon rush hour turned out to be lighter than normal as a result.
A horrible incident cause horrible delays for hours, but thanks to a coordinated cleanup and investigatory effort, we were saved from what could have been one of the worst rush hours in recent memory.
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