Lengthy I-81 closure in Maryland: What we know about what happened and the response (2025)

Julie E. GreeneThe Herald-Mail

Lengthy I-81 closure in Maryland: What we know about what happened and the response (1)

Lengthy I-81 closure in Maryland: What we know about what happened and the response (2)

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A stretch of Interstate 81 near Williamsport was closed for approximately 19 hours on Thursday after a northbound truck crashed into the southbound lanes and spilled paint.

The crash occurred around 3:30 a.m. Thursday near the 3-mile marker, which is north of the Williamsport exit for U.S. 11 and south of the Interstate 70 interchange.

Maryland State Police officials said a tractor-trailer was heading north and went through the median, crashed into a guardrail and overturned. The overturned truck spilled hazardous paint, resulting in the Maryland Department of the Environment cordoning off the area and sending its emergency team to the crash site.

The injured truck driver was taken to Meritus Medical Center near Hagerstown.

The truck was hauling pallets of five-gallon buckets of paint, but environment officials also saw some one-gallon pails, officials said.

The ensuing response, including crash and environmental cleanup, as well as other crashes along I-81 contributed to the lengthy interstate closure, Maryland State Highway Administration spokesperson Danny Allman wrote in an email Friday morning.

The southbound lanes reopened fully around 10:30 p.m. Thursday.

The crash occurred in a two-lane section of Interstate 81, just before the recently improved area, according to Allman.

The southern leg of I-81 in Washington County was widened to three lanes in each direction a few years ago. Efforts to widen the rest of I-81 in Washington County have stalled due to funding issues.

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I-81 crash: How Maryland agencies responded

In addition to state police, state highway and the Maryland Department of the Environment also responded to the crash scene.

State Police, who are investigating the crash, posted on Facebook before 4 a.m. Thursday about the incident. The agency also used Facebook to alert motorists that the southbound lanes were closed and to avoid the area.

Southbound traffic was detoured at the I-70 interchange, though many motorists — including tractor-trailer drivers — took other routes to try to get around the closure.

State highway crews from the Hagerstown shop as well as SHA's Coordinated Highway Action Response Team (CHART) responded to the scene to help with the closure, Allman said.

State highway activated its overhead message board on eastbound and westbound I-70 to alert drivers, well ahead of the crash scene, about the situation on 81, Allman wrote. Pennsylvania Department of Transportation officials also were alerted so they could use their overhead message signs to notify drivers.

State highway crews helped set up traffic control, with traffic being detoured at 70, and assisted the towing company with cleaning up the crash debris, Allman said. Crews also marked the damaged traffic barrier, including a guardrail, with barrels. Crews will return at some point to replace the damaged areas.

Not unexpectedly, the interstate closure resulted in heavy traffic on local roads in local communities along I-81.

The Washington County Sheriff's Office assisted with units in the Halfway/Williamsport area to help control traffic, Sgt. Carly Hose said in an email Friday morning.

Their work included getting large trucks turned around because drivers were taking routes not equipped for such large vehicles, she wrote.

A single lane or shoulder of I-81 was reopened periodically to let some traffic through, at first to let through motorists that had been stuck for hours between the detour and crash site, according to State Police.

The paint on the damaged trailer had to be off-loaded by hand to another truck before the damaged trailer could be uprighted, according to Allman and state police.

"As a result of the initial closure at the crash site, there were also multiple secondary collisions which resulted in additional lane closures and delays," Allman wrote. "That, in turn, resulted in motorists taking other routes to get around the traffic."

Compounding the situation in the late afternoon and early evening was a stretch of westbound Interstate 70 being closed for about five hours after a five-vehicle collision west of the U.S. 40 interchange shortly after 5 p.m.

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What we know about the potential paint spill hazard on Interstate 81

The latex paint spilled is a "pollutant that could kill aquatic life," MDE spokesperson Jay Apperson wrote in an email.

Apperson said Friday morning, via email, that MDE officials cleared the scene Thursday morning and were confident the paint didn't have the potential to reach a nearby creek. There were no reports from the contractor of paint reaching the water.

There is a stormwater culvert near the crash, but to environmental officials' knowledge, the paint did not reach the nearby creek, Apperson wrote Thursday. The team, as a precaution, also covered a storm drain inlet in the median.

Sand was spread to absorb and solidify the paint, officials said.

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What we know about the truck driver

The injured truck driver was identified by state police as Robert Basich, 49, of Citrus Springs, Fla.

Basich was taken via ambulance to Meritus Medical Center near Hagerstown, according to Kyleigh Beaver, a state police spokesperson. The driver was the only occupant of the truck.

Basich was not listed as a patient at Meritus Medical Center as of late Thursday morning, according to an email shortly before noon from a Meritus Health spokesperson.

Investigators believe Basich was transported for non-life-threatening injuries, Beaver wrote in an email.

State police could not immediately confirm the name of Basich's employer or the truck company.

State highway traffic cam network lacking along I-81

The state highway traffic cam network is lacking around I-81, with one camera near Showalter Road noted on the website. There also is a camera along Interstate 70 at an exit for I-81.

Allman said state highway officials are evaluating the region for the installation of traffic cameras.

Lengthy I-81 closure in Maryland: What we know about what happened and the response (2025)
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