Nooooo! Highway 401 in Mississaugua (Canada, I believe) was closed on May 11, 2005 after an accident that spilled 2,184 cases of Grolsch beer. A woman driving a car, swerved out of her lane and into the path of a Molson beer truck, causing the truck to roll over and the car to flip. One officer described the scene as “a sea of beer”. The woman’s life was most likely saved by her seatbelt and airbag. The beer was a gonner.

See below for the Great Beer Spill Controversy!

UPDATE 3/5/08: Wow! www.truckspills.com has gotten a lot of attention in the past few weeks. And apparently this story has upset a lot of Canadians who apparently do not appreciate being blamed for spilled beer. The original news story I got this photo from did say that it was “Highway 402 in Mississaugua”. The website was a Canadian newspaper. Another report said “heading north on the Trans Canada Highway to Thunder Bay”.

But I have received quite a few emails that range from mild comments to outrage over the location of this spill. Some quotes…

“That is a 2 lane road. The Hwy 401 in Ontario (which does indeed run through Mississauga) is never narrower than 4 lanes with a divided median, and is in fact 16 lanes wide at some points. Keep up the cool site!”

“…that aint Canada, that’s in The Netherlands! So maybe you should update it or something, cause it sure is in Holland.
Reasons why this is:
– Grolsch is Dutch beer
– The police officer and woman wear Dutch police outfits
– The poles next to the road are the same used here in The Netherlands
– The road and the scenery look like here, probably somewhere on ”De Veluwe” (a big forest/nature thingy)

Cool! I didn’t realize that I was living in Canada….
I don’t know where you came up with the beer spill story, but that is complete BS. It wasn’t in Canada, but in the home country of Grolsch beer The Netherlands. Location: near the city of Mariënberg and if you really want to know the road: it was the N36… 😀
Two trucks crashed and one of them had beer on board!

This one’s just about your Beer Spill article. As I’m writing this, you have “Highway 401 in Mississaugua (Canada, I believe) was closed on May 11, 2005” on the page. Just to correct it, it’s spelled “Mississauga” and it is indeed in Canada. Right next to Toronto, if that helps.

As a Canadian an proud beer drinker, I checked out the page on the spilt beer to mourn this tragic loss….
While you say it takes place in Canada (first Mississauga and then the Trans Canada), I can 100% confirm that this is not a Canadian event.
The vehicles (trucks and cars) in the pictures are not models sold in North America. Also, the road marking standard here is a yellow centerline with white lane markers (edges).

The consensus so far is that it was in the Netherlands. If anyone can find an actual news report on this, I’ll gladly post it here to clear up the controversy.

This site also claims it was Canada, but they could have swiped it from me.

Beer Crimes

Will this ever be cleared up? We strive for accuracy! On the bright side, my further research has turned up the new photo posted above. Does anyone know this beer drinker? He has the answer!

 

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