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Baton Rouge, Louisiana
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Minor accident caused major delays Wednesday morning

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BATON ROUGE- Parts of I-10 and I-12 looked more like a parking lot Wednesday morning as crews loaded a white car onto a wrecker.

There was only one thing drivers could do.

"Just chilling, waiting on the traffic to flow," driver Ata Hammond said.

The clean-up happened almost an hour after four vehicles were involved in a minor wreck. A few other fender benders happened behind them.

Ata Hammond was one of the thousands of drivers who got stuck while all lanes were closed at one point.

"Taking too long, sitting about an hour actually," Hammond said.

Officials say there is no average clean-up time when it comes to accidents. They say each situation is different. The DOTD Motorist Assistance Patrol works to help speed things up but it's up to BRPD or other emergency responders to clear the scene and get traffic moving again.

Accidents like this renew concerns about what'll happen when I-10 is reduced, at least temporarily as the long-awaited widening project begins. Officials previously said they're working on a plan for when that happens.

"What we're going to do is we're going to have 24-hour MAP service with tow trucks. We're working closely with ambulance services, other emergency response operations, law enforcement, fire departments, to see how we can best address that," Rodney Mallett, spokesperson for DOTD, said.

More MAP trucks will be on the roads then. As to why we don't see more now?

"It costs, and we don't have crashes every day contrary to popular belief, so we'd be paying for MAP patrol out there 24 hours a day," Mallett said.

All lanes were open by 11 a.m., but delays lasted until after noon.

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