A serious motorcycle crash shut down the northbound lanes of I-17 near Bethany Home Road in central Phoenix early Saturday, leaving drivers stuck until the freeway reopened shortly before 7 a.m.

The closure hit one of Phoenix’s busiest corridors before sunrise, and it happened on a morning when commuters were already starting to move. Southbound traffic was not affected, but the northbound backup lasted for several hours while crews worked the scene.

Arizona Department of Public Safety was investigating the crash details as video from the scene showed a badly burned motorcycle and a vehicle with severe rear-end damage being loaded onto a tow truck. Arizona’s Family crews also saw a motorcycle lying in the middle of the freeway, and debris was scattered across the lanes as crews swept up the roadway.

At least one person was taken to the hospital, but the person’s condition was not known at the time of the report. That unanswered detail leaves the crash’s human cost hanging even after traffic moved again, and it is the part investigators have yet to explain.

The lane closure was the clearest sign of how much the crash mattered in real time: for several hours, northbound I-17 was effectively cut off near Bethany Home Road, then reopened shortly before 7 a.m. The next step is the DPS investigation, which has to determine what caused the motorcycle crash and whether anything else contributed to the damage seen on the freeway.