Truck Crash Jams Freeway for Miles : Accident: The huge vehicle plows through a concrete median in Costa Mesa. Injuries are minor, but the traffic stretches to Long Beach on southbound side and down to Irvine in northbound lanes.

A tractor-trailer truck careened through a concrete median and into opposing traffic Monday afternoon on the San Diego Freeway, causing a 12-mile-long traffic jam that lasted for hours but cleared up just in time for the evening commute.

Although the truck struck two cars and four other vehicles were damaged by flying concrete, no one was injured except the truck driver, who suffered a bruised forehead and cut knee.

The California Highway Patrol is investigating the incident. So far, no one has been cited, CHP spokeswoman Angel Johnson said.

The accident occurred about 1 p.m. as 34-year-old Barrett Andrew Hendrix of San Jose was driving the 40-foot Allied Van Line truck south on the San Diego Freeway near Fairview Road. He was transporting machinery from San Jose to Irvine.

As he reached under his seat to retrieve a log book that had fallen, Johnson said, southbound traffic ahead of him stopped. To avoid cars in front of him, Johnson said, Hendrix swerved into the median strip.

The truck crashed through the median and hit two vehicles traveling north before coming to rest perpendicular to all traffic and blocking both sides of the freeway, she said.

About 60 gallons of diesel fuel spilled onto the roadway. All lanes of the freeway remained closed for about an hour as Caltrans crews cleaned up the fuel spill, CHP Officer Kari Keul said.

By 2 p.m., most southbound lanes had reopened. But most northbound lanes remained closed until about 3:30 p.m., Keul said.

At one point, southbound traffic was backed up for nearly 12 miles, from Costa Mesa to the San Gabriel River Freeway in Long Beach. The northbound traffic jam extended for about seven miles from Fairview Road to Yale Avenue in Irvine, Johnson said.

The accident-related congestion finally thinned out about 4 p.m.--just in time for rush-hour traffic.

Hendrix was taken to Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach, where he was treated and released. Hendrix told CHP officers he was driving about 60 m.p.h. at the time of the crash, Johnson said. His big rig sustained “substantial” damage, she said.