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All Lanes of I-77 South Reopened Following Fatal Accident Wednesday Morning

All lanes of I-77 south have been reopened following a fatal accident Wednesday morning.

Columbia, SC (WLTX) — After being closed for more than 6 hours, all lanes of I-77 South have been reopened following a fatal accident Wednesday morning.

Officials say a tractor trailer carrying livestock struck a construction lift on I-77 shortly after 5 a.m. Wednesday morning, killing the construction worker. There was no immediate word on the condition of the truck driver.

All lanes of Interstate 77 South between Exit 27 (Blythewood Road) and Exit 24 (US-21 Wilson Blvd) were closed from around 5 a.m. through just around 11:30 a.m.

Traffic on I-77 South was exiting on Exit 27, crossing the bridge and getting right back on the interstate, according to Trooper Jones, who says their MAIT team was on the scene for several hours to reconstruct the accident.

"For the family's sake, for the operator of the truck, for the crew that's out here working, we're going to make sure everything is done right in an effort to bring some closure as to what happened and what led up to this wreck."

"We know this construction equipment was in the road when it was struck, but what led up the crash, what the cause was is still too early to tell at this point," Jones says.

"An accident like this, a two-part crash, is pretty complex and we're going to make sure everything is done correrctly," says Trooper Jones. "We see that traffic is backed up for four or five miles and we understand that getting to your destination is your top priority, but we want to remind motorists that there's a family that's getting some of the worst news of their lives right now, so let's thing about them and the heartache they are going through."

In addition to reconstructing the accident, livestock aboard the tractor trailer had to be re-loaded onto another truck.

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