Around 2:30 wednesday afternoon, the majority of people on Interstate 526 between Leeds Avenue and Sam Rittenberg Blvd were at a dead stop.
Police say the driver, 25 year old Mathew Middleton, ran off the left side of the road and hit a foundation that holds up a SCDOT digital sign. Middleton says he believes he hit a bump and was knocked unconcious, and he cannot remember running off the road. Witnesses who saw the incident say they never saw him apply the brakes at any time.
If you were caught in traffic yesterday at anytime, it was bumper to bumper East Bound, and completely closed off to traffic West bound.
"Bumper to bumper all the way down Sam Rittenberg, Savannah Highway, it is crazy," Joshua Johnson said.
Crews closed the road because the overhead sign Middleton hit was in danger of falling.
"Of course, the sign is very heavy," District Traffic Director, Mark Nesbit said. "We had to make sure it was controlled before we opened traffic back up."
The accident took hours to clean up, closing the road for nearly 5 hours.
Police tell us there was $20,000 worth of damage to Middletons vehicle and $150,000 in damage to SCDOT property.
Middleton is charged with careless driving.
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