The truck driver was found at a truck stop in Pennsville by Delaware River and Bay Authority Police.
A driver for a New Jersey company who left a disabled trailer in a major travel lane on Delaware's Interstate 295, causing a five-mile backup, has been charged by authorities.
The trailer was abandoned about a mile west of the toll plaza of the Delaware Memorial Bridge.
The incident unfolded around 2 a.m. Monday when a tractor-trailer driven by Muhammad Afzal, 42, of Brooklyn, New York, became disabled in the southbound lanes on I-295 near the Route 13 overpass, according to Jim Salmon, spokesman for the Delaware River and Bay Authority.
Afzal unhitched his truck from the trailer and left the trailer on the interstate, authorities said. It blocked one of the only two lanes of travel open because of a major road reconstruction project, according to Salmon.
Afzal was driving for Blue Shark Transportation of Hoboken, according to authorities.
DRBA Police found that the trailer had broken rails causing the center area of the trailer to buckle in the roadway.
In order to safely remove the disabled trailer, its contents, which were compressed trash, had to be off-loaded, Salmon said. Once the trash was removed, the trailer was removed from the road and taken to a local tow yard.
Painting the bridge takes workers to new heights
According to Salmon, Afzal was found at a truck stop across the bridge in Pennsville. Afzal returned to the DRBA police headquarters at the base of trhe Delaware Memorial Bridge in New Castle, Delaware, for questioning.
Delaware State Police Motor Carrier Unit inspected the trailer and discovered several failing cracks in the trailer's rails that had been unsuccessfully repaired, according to Salmon.
Afzal was charged with operating an unsafe vehicle and willfully abandoning a vehicle on the interstate, Salmon said. Blue Shark Transportation will be charged for the cleanup, Salmon said. There's no exact figure for that yet, Salmon said.
Motorists using the southbound or Delaware-bound bridge experienced large backups recently when emergency work caused three lanes of the four-lane span to be closed for a time.
On Monday the southbound traffic on I-295 was backed up for nearly five miles across the Delaware Memorial Bridge into New Jersey at the height of the morning rush hour.
The scene wasn't cleared until about 10 a.m., Salmon said.
Bill Gallo Jr. may be reached at bgallo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow Bill Gallo Jr. on Twitter @bgallojr. Find NJ.com on Facebook.