A section of the M1 was closed for more than six hours after an articulated lorry jackknifed and overturned.
The driver was treated in hospital for minor injuries.
The accident blocked all three lanes of the southbound carriageway and hard shoulder, causing tailbacks from Junction 22, at Markfield, all the way back to Junction 23, at Loughborough.
The road was closed from Junction 22 to Junction 21a, at Leicester Forest East.
It caused gridlock on surrounding roads, including the A511, A50, A46 and the outer Leicester ring road, as traffic was rerouted away from the stricken lorry and back on to the motorway further south.
The lorry crashed at about 11.45am, about a quarter of a mile south of Junction 22.
Leicester Mercury employee Karl Prickett was caught up in the jams.
He said: "We were stuck for two hours waiting to get off at Junction 22, on our way back from Stoke.
"It was a nightmare, even when we got off – there were people going south with no idea where they were. The A46 and ring road were chock-a-block too – it was utter chaos."
A police spokesman said: The driver was taken by ambulance to Leicester Royal Infirmary with minor injuries."
A spokeswoman for the Highways Agency said: "Traffic trapped between Junction 22 and the lorry was eventually able to file past the vehicle using part of the hard shoulder.
"The rest was rerouted along the A46 and back on to the M1."
