We often reiterate that commercial trucks move roughly 72.5 percent of our country’s freight by weight. Such a large volume is comprised of a variety of commodities. Look around the room, point to a random object, and the odds are that it has been on a rig.
The trucking industry does a diligent job of delivering the products to their customers and, in return, keep our favorite stores, restaurants, and venues stocked.
However, on occasion, accidents do happen. Just this last week, a truck spilled more than 150,000 tomatoes onto a Californian highway.
Tomatoes, thousands of them, strewn out on the road left a sea of tomato juice slurry as cars drove over them. A pretty bizarre scene, right?
Well, it’s certainly not the first time trucks have had odd spills. The following are some weird examples over the years.
Beer
For all its mountainous beauty, Colorado’s dramatic elevation changes makes for truly tricky roads. Strategically placed throughout its interstates are emergency ramps for runaway vehicles in case their brakes are pushed to the limit descending downhill.
Enter the curious case of the Colorado beer spill of 2017.
Hip-hop artist Post Malone famously sang, “I’ma take a Bud Light break, ah, ah.” These profound words served foreboding to an unfortunate semi-truck driver who was hauling 42 thousand pounds of Bud Light beer.
But rather than a break, the driver lost control of the vehicle’s brakes on a difficult stretch of Coloradan freeway. With familiar blue cases of Bud Light beer flying out, the semi-truck had no control over its speed and stopping ability.
Witnesses account the accident as the 25-year-old driver managing to get on the final emergency ramp right before Wolf Creek Pass. This stretch of road on U.S. Highway 160 is notorious for semitruck crashes, with 47 reported from 2015 to 2019.
The intrepid driver escaped the accident free of injury. However, unfortunately, spilled beer never returns to the can.
Chocolate
In May of 2018, a truck hauling liquid chocolate between the Polish cities of Warsaw and Poznan overturned, oozing out 12 tons of the brown good stuff over four highway lanes. As photos visualize, the pool of chocolate sheened in the sunlight and gradually hardened into the asphalt roadway.
Local firefighters braved the sugary spill using streams of hot water to melt the chocolate and wash it away. Both sides of traffic were blocked off while the cleanup was attended to as the unassuming sweet treat became an unexpected road hazard.
No serious injuries were reported.
Deadpool Comics
Our experts at Commerce Express Inc. are not ones to typically entertain conspiracy theories, but the timing of this trucking spill in Columbus, Ohio certainly left us with some questions.
Back in February of 2016, a collision involving two semi-trucks hurled hundreds of Deadpool, Vol. 9: Institutionalized comic books onto the interstate. The cleanup of debris left lanes of this roadway closed off for the remainder of the day. One of the drivers was taken to hospital for minor injuries.
At the time of the accident, the popular Marvel movie Deadpool just came out days before. Given the chaotic nature of Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool in the flick, was this an elaborate stunt promoting the release?
Probably not.
Final Thoughts
Contact one of our team members if you have any questions regarding this topic or any others in domestic logistics.
This is an everchanging industry. Stay up to date each week on rail and trucking developments through our Commerce Express Road Map Newsletter.
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