On December 18, 2008, preparations were underway for the NHL Winter Classic at Wrigley Field on New Year’s Day. Unfortunately, one of the Zamboni’s took a bit of a spill of the end of the truck it arrived on. Fortunately, the driver and the Zamboni were OK. Scroll down for rare truck spill “video” of the incident! Although it seems more like a bunch of still images put together into a video.

Construction of the rink for this game requires 52,000 sheets of plywood, 20,000 gallons of water, and 350 gallons of paint.

WGRZ

On April 6, 2009, in Benalla, Australia, a truck overturned and spilled its load of liquid glucose. About two-thirds of the entire load of glucose spilled on the road.

The driver suffered a broken shoulder.

Absorbent material was laid over the spill and the road was pressure washed to remove any remaining glucose.

The Border Mail

On Jun 11, 2009, a truck and trailer swerved to avoid a car that pulled in front of them and lost dozens of bails of hay on I-90 in Issaquah, WA.

The driver and female passenger, who declined to provide their names, were transporting the hay from a local farm to the womans home when a woman in a gold, four-door sedan suddenly cut across lanes and stopped directly in front of the truck. The truck driver was forced to break hard and pull the far right lane to avoid hitting the car. This caused the vehicle to begin to sway and lose their load of hay.

Some of the hay was reloaded onto the truck, but much was spread across about a quarter mile of the highway.

Issaquah Press, Photos Kathleen R. Merrill

On June 11, 2009, an armored car travelling on I-75 in Detroit somehow managed to spill bags of cash onto the highway. It is not clear how their door opened and the bags fell out.

What followed is still a big problem for Loomis, the armored car company that lost the cash. Local motorists began stopping and scooping up as much cash as possible, scrambling to get the money before the guards could. Local residents who heard about the incident also began to show up in the area looking through the tall grass along the roadway for stray bills or just to heckle the guards. Some motorists did hand any cash they picked up to the guards. However as of Friday the company estimates that about $160,000.00 is still missing.

The company claims that they will utilize traffic cameras in the area to track down and prosecute people that pocketed the money. However, according to the Michigan Department of Transportation, it is illegal for them to use traffic cameras in order to apprehend anyone. So there seems to be little they can do to find those that walked off with cash in their pockets.

The Detroit News

On May 16, 2009 in Sacramento, CA, a truck carrying individual serving Smuckers Jelly packets overturned spilling it’s load of sticky goodness all over the highway.

The accident began with a minor accident involving several cars. Just after the occupants of the cars got out, a tractor-trailer, struck one of the cars and overturned. The truck driver suffered two broken legs, but there were no other major injuries.

Sacremento Press

On April 2, 2009, about 2,000 pounds of raw sausage spilled onto a busy road in Savannah Georgia. Just before 11:00 a.m. a truck carrying an open load of sausage was cut-off by a car, causing the driver to slam on his brakes, shifting his load and causing the spill.

Unfortunately, it was rainy at the time and the rain mixed with the sausage caused a thick, mushy mess. City crews tried sweeping up the sausage, then tried using street sweepers, but neither worked. Eventually, they used a mobile jet vac to suck it up. It took about 4 hours to clear the messy street.

The truck belonged to Griffin Industries which collects expired sausage from restaurants and stores. They also collect waste by-products from slaughterhouses, butchers, hotels, restaurants, etc. The waste products are recycled into rendered fats and proteins, pet food, and fertilizer. The fatty acids obtained from our meaty leftovers find their way into soaps, gelatins, cosmetics, paints, and many other products.

Incidentally, I was wondering what a mobile jet vac was, so I looked around and found that it is a truck with a giant jet vacuum designed for cleaning out sewers.

WTOC and WAFB

On May 11, 2009 in Nashua, NH, a bunch of styrofoam blew off a truck on the Everett Turnpike. Obviously, from the picture, the styrofoam was run over and broken up quite a bit. Highway crews cleared the road.

WMUR

On June 16, 2009, a truck loaded with doughnut glaze lost control and rolled over on the Pacific Highway South in Des Moines, Washington, spilling it’s sticky load into a culvert. The Department of Transportation was called in to clean up the mess. The driver sustained minor injuries, but declined medical attention. Some news reports claimed this was Krispy Kreme glaze, but it doesn’t seem like it would be because they mix that up at the stores.

(When I’m working on this site, there are times when I seriously can’t believe what I am reading. I thought for sure this photo was a fake and I had my suspicions about the story. But, it turns out it is all true. I still can’t figure out why they were transporting doughnut glaze in these kinds of quantities. I mean, really? Do they use that much?)

The Seattle Times, Photo Greg Gilbert

On February 17, 2009, A truck driver in Salt Lake City, Utah fell asleep at the wheel, drifted into the center divider, causing the semi to strike an overhead. This split open the trailer, spilling about 40,000 pounds of hambuger patties on the highway. Patties littered the northbound lanes of I-15 and some of them hopped the divider into the southbound lanes as well.

Oddly enough just a few hours earlier, a truck spilled beer on a nearby highway. Maybe someone was planning a picnic?

KUTV

On June 23, 2009, in Topeka, Kansas, two piles of a yellow substance were spotted on the roadway. The substance was at first unidentified, which triggered a haz-mat scare that blocked the highway entrance for several hours.

Fire department haz-mat crews were dispatched to take samples. Eventually it turned out to be egg gluten, which is used as a feed additive. The truck that spilled it was not identified. Once crews knew what the substance was, it was cleaned up and the road reopened.

WIBW