Crash blocks I-10 at Whiskey Bay Thursday

DOTD screen shot taken at 1 p.m. -- An accident on Thursday morning shut down one lane on Interstate 10 west at mile marker 127. The accident has been cleared. Traffic at 1 p.m. was moving but still very heavy.

Driver fatigue may have contributed to an 18-wheeler crash that shut down Interstate 10 West traffic between Grosse Tete and Whiskey Bay early Thursday, State Police spokesman Evan Harrell said.

Harrell said a witness driving behind the tractor-trailer rig told troopers that around 4:09 a.m., the truck swerved sharply in the right and left traffic lanes before crashing into the Atchafalaya Basin bridge’s concrete barrier and flipping onto its side in the middle of the roadway.

The crash happened around mile marker 127, Harrell said.

The truck driver, Cortez Robertson, of Monroe, was taken to a hospital and treated for moderate injuries, Harrell said.

Harrell said troopers cited Robertson, 30, for careless operation.

I-10 West was reopened around 11:42 a.m., Harrell said, but the seven-mile stretch of snarled traffic set off a series of other accidents to which troopers responded as the interstate was being cleared.

No major injuries were reported in the other accidents, he said.