The crash happened just after 6 a.m. Friday at the St. Gabe's curve (mile marker 188).
State police say the tractor-trailer left the westbound lanes, crossed the median and struck the SUV in the eastbound lanes.
The SUV went down the embankment and crossed over the adjacent Schuylkill River Trail before coming to rest on its side.
The driver of that vehicle was killed.
There was no word on any injuries to the tractor-trailer driver. The investigation into what caused the trucker to lose control continues.
Both the eastbound and westbound lanes were shut down for about six hours, but all lanes were open by noon.
The view from Chopper 6 showed bumper-to-bumper traffic in both directions. The crash forced people like Alana Dimenna to abruptly exit the highway.
She was rerouted while on her way to the shore.
"We got on at Collegeville, and probably like a minute into it we saw it was really backed up, then we were detoured to get off here at Oaks," Dimenna said.
Part of the Schuylkill River Trail was also closed. The crash had one bicyclist thinking about her safety.
"Kind of scary, because we ride those trails a lot - they are close to the highway," said Cheryl Mann of Royersford.
For the latest highway conditions, visit 6abc.com/Traffic.