18-Wheeler Disabled Along I-55 In Lemont After Losing 8 Wheels: Police

LEMONT, IL — Motorists traveling along Interstate 55 in Lemont on Tuesday were greeted by a unique traffic snarl after an 18-wheeler suddenly became disabled after losing eight of its 18 wheels, the Illinois State Police said.

The incident took place at 10:24 a.m., when the state police said the semi-truck was driving in the right lane of the expressway at Lemont Road and lost its rear tandem axle assembly suspension unit. The axle disconnected from the truck's chassis and began to bounce freely in another lane of I-55, police said.

An approaching school bus with no passengers aboard was unable to avoid striking the axle assembly, which hit the bus on the driver's side, police said. The drivers of both vehicles were able to safely pull to the shoulder of the road and refused medical treatment, a state police spokesperson said Tuesday afternoon.

WBBM tweeted photos of the disabled semi-truck and tweeted "Kind of hard to make an 18-wheeler move with only 10 wheels attached."

Illinois State Police troopers are working the scene, which, according to the report has brought traffic to a crawl coming from Route 53.

One photo tweeted out by the radio station showed an Illinois State trooper walking two of the truck's tires across the expressway. The station reported that the right lane of traffic was completely blocked, which slowed traffic dramatically as troopers worked to clear the scene.