Truck collision causes major traffic headaches - NBC12.com - Richmond, VA News

West Broad Street at Innsbrook was an absolute mess Thursday morning. Paint splattered all over the road after a safety-zone truck rear-ended the road painting truck it was meant to protect. Westbound traffic was shut down for hours.  

Samantha Zehnle is one of hundreds of drivers who got stuck in this traffic nightmare. 

"I wasn't too sure what actually happened because I normally come in from a different direction but having extra traffic definitely threw me off," she said. 

This truck was not painting lines on the road when this crash happened just before five Thursday morning. Police are now looking into why this truck plowed into the other truck that was stopped at a red light. Three people were taken to the hospital. Fortunately all of them only have minor injuries. 

It took hours to haul away the wrecked truck. Haz-mat crews had to clean up the paint that spilled. 

"We want to make sure we get that up so drivers aren't confused that the new paint from this accident is actually part of the roadway," said Henrico Police Lt. Linda Toney.

West Broad Street runs through the heart of Henrico's west end. People in this area say accidents are nothing new in this area. 

"There are plenty of fender benders here. Every day we see something here but that's probably one of the worst we've seen," said Zehnle. 

The truck that caused this accident is owned by a contractor called "road safe". This truck was supposed to give the paint truck room to work safely. 

"It's crazy something like this happened, especially for a safety truck. It's almost ironic," Zehnle added. 

Police say no charges have been filed so far, but the investigation is not finished.

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