Interstate 280 was basically a parking lot in Essex County Thursday due to a major snowstorm.

Traffic accidents in the area caused heavy backups, which also prevented snowplows from coming in to clear the roads. Drivers say that that it took them hours to drive even the shortest of distances.

At one point in the evening, parts of I-280 were closed due to the dangerous conditions.

The chaos prompted many drivers to abandon their vehicles on the highway so that they could find an alternate way home.

News 12 New Jersey spoke to some drivers who were back on the highway Friday, digging their cars out of the snow.

“I was driving home around 3 p.m. and got stuck up here. And I live like two miles away so I just stopped my car and walked home,” says Lauren Zangara.

Zangara says that she tried to take her car up a hill, but other cars became stuck, and so did she.

“I just said, ‘Do I wait or do I go?’ I'm the kind of person that just goes. I just had to go home,” she says.

Zangara says that although she had to come back to dig out her car Friday morning, she counted herself among the lucky ones.

“I got home so much earlier than anyone else I know. I made it home like two hours after I left work,” she says.

But no good deed goes unpunished. Zangara says that once she dug out her car, she found out that her battery was dead. AAA sent a tow truck to her rescue.