BLACK CANYON CITY, AZ — Southbound lanes of I-17 were shut down overnight after a crash involving a commercial vehicle.
Traffic was still backed up early Friday morning after the collision, which occurred around 9 p.m. at milepost 246, near Black Canyon City.
ADOT said around 5:40 a.m. that the affected lanes had reopened.
"We are literally at a standstill stuck here. I feel like I'm being held hostage by the State of Arizona to be quite honest with you,” Colleen said, one of the dozens of people stuck on the road overnight.
Bart Graves, with DPS says, it was, "A series of strange events all happening at a strange time of the night."
Just after 9 p.m. Thursday, DPS says a driver of a fully loaded semi, believed to be speeding, lost control and overturned southbound on I-17 near Black Canyon City.
The damage was so bad Graves said, “We thought that driver, his body was in the wreckage. So, we spent a lot of time looking for his body."
But after hours of sifting through the damage, no one was inside.
DPS says they eventually found the driver who they believe was impaired at the time of the crash. He was reportedly knocking on the door of a home in Black Canyon City and didn't know where he was, possibly hallucinating. He was arrested.
