Officials say that just before noon the driver of a big-rig briefly lost control of the vehicle, overcorrected, and ended up driving the 53-foot long box trailer onto the center divide. Half landed on the southbound side, the other half on the northbound side.
A Sig-alert was issued around 12:07 p.m. for the closure of all southbound lanes and one northbound lane.
With the vehicle straddling the center divider, crews had a difficult task to clear the highway. Eventually they cut it in half and had to upright each section. They also worked to clear about 40 gallons of spilled diesel fuel from the crash.
Though the northbound lane opened around 4:30 p.m. and all southbound lanes reopened about a half hour later, traffic remained backed up for several miles well into the late evening commute.
The 50-year-old driver was pulled from the truck cab and taken to Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley with abdominal lacerations. He's expected to fully recover from his injuries.
According to the CHP one other car was involved in the crash but no one in that vehicle was injured.
(Bay City News contributed to this report)
