Posts Tagged ‘spill on road’
Alligators
July 15th, 2017
Yikes! A trailer carrying 26 alligator carcasses to a processing plant overturned on a Fort Lauderdale highway (year unknown). The carcasses, which weighed about 10,000 pounds were put on a flatbed truck and taken to the processing plant.
Who knew alligators were being hauled around the country? Alligator farming is big business in Florida, Texas and Louisiana, producing about 45,000 hides a year. 6-7 foot hides sell for as much as $300. The market for alligator meat also produces about 300,000 pounds a year.
Alligators should not be confused with crocodiles, which are a completely different animal. One way to tell the difference is that alligators teeth do not show when their mouth is closed, crocodiles do.
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New Cars
July 15th, 2017
On November 19, 2008 a truck rolled over in Ballan (somewhere in Australia) and dumped new cars on the median. Fortunately, the driver had only minor injuries. The truck was on it’s way from Adelaide to Melbourne. The damaged cars were hauled away to be scrapped.
Zamboni
July 15th, 2017
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.
Glucose
July 15th, 2017
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.
Hay
July 15th, 2017
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
Cash
July 15th, 2017
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.
Smucker’s Jelly Packets
July 15th, 2017
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.
Sausage
July 15th, 2017
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.
Doughnut Glaze
July 15th, 2017
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