Have you wondered what those big containers on the highway are carrying? Paint, Frozen Fish, Small Piglets, and so many other things. There's one way you could know if they spilled whatever is inside. But sometimes they choose a busy highway to do so and things turn bad. These things happen pretty often and out of the hundreds of such incidents, here are the top 50 cargo spills that gave us a barrel of laughs.
You might think McDonald's french fries spilled on the freeway wouldn't seek the attention of health-conscious Californians but even they couldn't resist their appetites when it happened. A truck full of fries spilled the content in the middle of the road and the best part was that the fries were frozen, and all the pedestrians had to do was stock it up in their refrigerator and enjoy at their leisure.
Not really into salty treats? Our next spill will break your heart.
Remember, how everyone's childhood dream was to visit Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory? Or to drive on a road made of chocolate? Then you got to be in Poland because that's where a truck full of chocolates rolled over and filled the highway with 12 tons of chocolate which of course melted in the heat or by the burning hearts of people driving on the road.
Yes, it hurts when we see so much chocolate wasted. To add the fun, firefighters were called on the scene to melt the chocolate away so it could be cleaned swiftly.
It is only a coincidence that two of the most delicious and stinky spills happened in Poland. The chocolate spill being a beautiful dream, the second one was not so welcomed. In 2012, a truck carrying loads of fish spilled it in the middle of a highway and the smell traveled fast enough for people to change their route.
What was similar in both these spills was that the highway was blocked for hours so that the cleaning could be done.
This might as well be the most disheartening spill on the list. Roads of the Netherlands actually would have become HIGH-way after this incident. A truck carrying cases of beer lost balance(might be because it was carrying BEER) and 2,184 cases of the liquid spilled onto the freeway.
An officer on duty said it seemed like a 'sea of beer'. While most of the bottles couldn't endure the shock and broke some were lucky to be picked up by passers-by.
For those who love candies, this was a disaster. Though these candies were deemed unfit for human consumption and were being transported to be used as a cattle feed having a look at this did break our heart. The surprising fact though was that the container was carrying only red colored sweeties. The reason for the spill was that it was raining and the water seeped through these boxes and as a result melted the candies sending a river of this sugary delight on the roads.
Not every spill in the list litters the road but they are as exciting. If you are a Comic Fan and you love Marvel's Deadpool, 2016 could have been a rewarding year. A truck carrying Deadpool comics and other animated books alongside was hit by another truck and let out its collection.
If I told you that this happened around the time when the first installment of Deadpool was about to release, you might think this to be a publicity stunt but believe me it wasn't.
Thankfully, this spill proved to be good for someone. It happened, when a truck carrying 2,200 alive(not baked into hams) piglets met with an accident and each animal escaped harmless into Ohio woods before the authorities came in.
This leads us to the question if the pigs were involved in planning the accident. (knowing where they were being taken to.)
I know it's bad for the children who hear this story but imagine how difficult would it have been for the cleanup crew. A truck carrying tons of ice cream was en route to a store in Kroger while it was passing through Indianapolis crashed and spilled 35,000 pounds of the tasty dessert. This happened in 2013. I knew how badly you wish you're there but the complete consignment was inedible by the time the first cleaning staff reached the spot.
Would you believe if someone said, the ocean could be your bathtub? This spill made it one. A cargo ship spilled all its content into the deep blue ocean. How does that make it a bathtub? The contents that the cargo ship was carrying were 29,000 plastic ducks, blue turtles, and green frogs. The clean-up was done but by then the ocean had claimed some of the toys. Some of them, even today find their way to the shore and beachgoers imagine how this ended up in the ocean.
How would it be if you got some extra cash just before Christmas? Delightful, isn't it?
On December 11, 2018, some commuters on Route 3 in East Rutherford got lucky when a cargo truck carrying freshly minted money crashed and let out all the money on the highway. The accident could have been worse but there was no major injury. The situation was dangerous but who would let such a golden chance slip away. The passers-by pounced on the money and before the authorities could arrive on the scene some of them had got lucky.
Dinner made good! In the summers of 2013, a truck carrying fresh crabs overturned in on the freeway and the motorists couldn't stop themselves from collecting their tasty dinner. The truck was carrying over seven tons of fresh juicy meat and might have been heading to some processing unit but you know how they say, "What is allotted, cannot be blotted." The incident costed a ton for the poor driver. It was exactly $176,000!
This happened in Georgia around December of 2013. A truck was carrying ham most probably for Christmas when it met with an accident and all the ham lay on the road. Not a nice Christmas, isn't it?
The bad part was that not a piece could be recovered because it was soaked in the fuel that went leaking from the cargo when it was hit.
Do you like Potato Fries, Potato Sandwich, Potato Spill?
Of course not. Nobody likes potatoes getting severely mashed unless it's for our sandwich. The amount of potato that went wasted in this spill is hazardous. The truck like the above cases lost balance and before the driver could know, potatoes were everywhere on the freeway.
This spill might be the reason for the famine that was tragic. Coming up is a colorful spill but at the wrong place.
Did you know, Novia Scotia has painted roads? No, not all of them, just the one where a truck full of paint spilled it on the road painting 400 feet of roadway making it look like a flowing river. Some people were even deceived by this mirage.
It took a lot of work by the cleanup crew to make sure that the paint doesn't reach any storm drains which could have contaminated a lot of water supply.
You might want to grab a glass after knowing of this spill. In 2018, an 18-wheeler truck was hit by another truck and an explosion followed. Everything that the cargo was carrying was lying as debris. Several crates of Fireball whiskey went wasted in the accident.
How sad you'd have been if it was Blue Label. If you are grabbing a glass, we've got pizza next.
So we've seen paint, Pork, and money being spilled on the roads for the people to benefit. But nothing could be as special as this one. One after the whiskey carrying truck let out its load, a rig taking the Interstate 30 in Little Rock offered frozen pizzas to the commuters.
It happened when the bridge was too low for the truck to roll and it's top blew and out came packed frozen pizzas on the highway. Sadly, most of it was spoiled and the authorities had to sweep them away with big brooms.
A lot of food items on the list. Now, this happened when the driver of a truck carrying ramen noodles dozed off and crashed his truck into the guardrail tossing off the tasty noodles in the air and then on the freeway. This incident almost caused a college walkout when the students decided to leave classes and hop on for a treat. Luckily the driver was unhurt and himself grabbed a bit for the spilled stuff.
Now 40,000 pounds of sausages is a lot of food to waste but it happened when in 2009 in Sheboygan Country, another truck driver lost himself in the wilderness of sleep and turned over his truck. Almost 40,000 pounds of sausages were wasted. It would be better if these rig drivers would catch a sound sleep before going on a mission so important.
The authorities had to close down the highway for the cleanup or did the enjoy a barbeque party?
In 2007, a cargo owned by a drug cartel was carrying tons of Cocaine near Bogota, Columbia when it overturned exposing the illegal business. The drugs had been hidden in the walls and roof of the vehicle but could not hide after the collision took place. The accident was severe but the driver escaped with minor injuries.
Apart from a lot of food, rig drivers have also lost a lot of money. Since 2004, there have been three incidents where a large amount of money was spilled on the roads across the United States. The first incident happened when a truck carrying $2 million worth of coins and crashed dumping out all the cash on the roads. Just one year later in Alabama, an armored truck coughed up $800,000 worth of coins. (That's a lot of change but not enough). In 2009, a truck released 3.5 million nickels.
This one is sheer coincidence. In 2012, a truck carrying maple syrup crushed at Buttermilk Pike. The situation must have been sticky and that is why it took hours for the cleanup. Not a lot of information is available about this spill but the Buttermilk Pike we are talking about is located in Kentucky.
Another food debacle! In 2011, a big rig crashed and lost 20 tons of frozen food and meat. It took seven hours of rigorous cleanup to bring back things to normal. The driver escaped with non-fatal injuries. The workers carrying out the cleaning operations didn't hesitate in stuffing some unspoiled food into their bags. Donuts, frozen food and a whole lot of freezer food.
Coming up is a honeycomb maze!
I would never have volunteered for this cleanup. When a truck carrying honey and 14 million bees crashed and unleashed havoc on the streets of Idaho, all the thanks the cleaning crew got was stings from the bees. (I wonder what they were cleaning, the honey or the bees). 14 million bees are a lot of them. Each one stinging a person could have sent the entire state in hospitals.
This is the healthiest cargo spills on the list. It was in September 2014 when a cargo spilled out all of its veggies stock on the roads. It was so much of green beans on the road that it almost looked like a field of green grass. Some motorists even changed their route thinking they came the wrong way.
Of course, not many people came to collect the vegetables for dinner as they did in the case of sausages or donuts.
Some fruits end up in our homes, then there are those which are kept at the grocery store for us to buy and then there are those which are scattered on the roads of California. Thousands of oranges remained littered after a truck carrying the stock overturned and by the patrol team showed up there were very few of them in collectible condition (not that they were edible before). It was the rejected stock and probably was going to be disposed of.
A truck carrying, 40,000 avocados met with an accident and caught fire. With the truck burned the invaluable avocados. The firefighting crew was called and the road was closed for general commuters for the most of the day while the cleanup was done. All 40,000 avocadoes were burnt to a crisp and the healthy fruit must have given some people a coughing fit.
The driver saw that the green light was about to turn red and accelerated fast enough to drop behind it 20 huge carts full of fresh cookie dough. Traffic at North Carolina's Highway 17 was completely obstructed as you can see from the image above. Though nobody was hurt in the incident its always sad to see so much cookie (Or to-be-cookie) getting wasted.
We remember, we promised the craziest spills which this might not be but the only reason we added this to our list is that it might urge you to play carnival festival.
So the story goes, a truck driver lost control of his vehicle and it over-turned sending a lot of corndogs across the I-220 west. The cleanup was a tedious task and could only be done by blocking traffic for quite some hours.
When a truck overturned on Miami highway on January 2, 2009, a string of shoes was thrown out of the carrier. The interesting part is that it had all types of footwear ranging from boots to slippers and sneakers. The most amusing of the lot were roller blades.
The highway was disrupted for hours while the authorities managed to get the shoes on the right track.
Here is another colorful spill on our list. Whereas the previous one was one toned this was a rainbow. A truck carrying around five gallons buckets of paint flipped over and the paint flowed down the street making beautiful patterns.
Only the cleaning staff would have known the pain of turning the road back to its original color but it was still a wonderful piece of art.
The deadliest spill happened on the highway of Utah when a vehicle carrying 35,000 pounds of explosives overturned and let out all the explosives on the highway. The disaster happened when the explosives blew up moments after the driver escaped. Barriers and roadblocks went high in the air and it was near death experience for anybody present there. Luckily no one was killed in the incident.
In March 2018, an aircraft carrying gold bars weighing 9.3 tons was torn open by the strong wind and one-third of the precious consignment found its way down to the runway. This happened just before the plane could take-off. The cargo was worth millions and the on-duty officials recovered 172 gold bars weighing 3.4 tons from the runway.
Creepy and smelly. Imagine the road to your office filled with an ocean of scrambled eggs. Commuters didn't only imagine but witnessed such a debacle when a truck filled with eggs turned over. Not so surprisingly, each egg in the carate broke and the yellow fluid filled the roadway.
Only the person responsible for cleaning up this mess would know the pain of it. The image tells the story.
A very tacky situation arrived when a cargo spilled very costly bull's semen across the highway in Nashville, Tennessee. The rig driver was unaware that he had lost the cargo and went on with his journey. The authorities were only informed after passers-by noticed the foul smell and then the semen was recovered. The cargo valued $80,000 but it must have cost more for getting the cleaning done.
It was a weekend. Bradley Robinson was happily heading towards the last working day for the week and he couldn't smell this coming. But when he found out, he wasn't amused. "A crappy way to start my Friday," he said. "There were piles that were this big and up near where the truck was, he had a really big pile. That first initial one, I kind of chopped it down for everybody."
The insurance people must have had fun handling the car owner. This spill wasn't nice either. What you see covering the car in the picture is a type of eel, generally considered a delicacy in the kitchen but didn't turn out the same for the owner. A truck carrying 7,500 pounds of hagfish had to abruptly apply the breaks near a construction site on the road and it led to all 13 containers ( that were going to be shipped to Korea) to slip off and cover this car.
Another smelly incident took place in Bellingham, Washington where 20 gallons of Portable Potty waste was being carried by a large truck. The spill took hours of work and huge manpower to clean the dirt. It is obvious because not everyone in the crew would be willing to go clean the STUFF.
This makes it to the Made In Heaven spill list. In 2016, in Florida, two trucks collided and everything that they were carrying was spilled out. And guess what, one of them was carrying beer and the other was full of potato chips. And that's a match!
Though the incident was so severe that none of the snacks could be saved and the authorities told that it was all going to be dumped. What a sheer waste of resources!
Poland has come up quite a lot on our list and here's one more from there. In 2012, 24 tons of Sardines, a kind of fish was dumped on the highway after the driver of the truck forgot to close the back of his truck.
The fish was all there for the people to gather their dinner. The spill didn't prove to be well for the driver though as he was asked to pay $7500 for the cleanup and another $75 as fine for his ignorance.
20 tons of fresh pears were being carried in a big rig that crashed in China and spilled all its content. Of course, it was China because the owner was okay for the people to take away the pear and as a reporter reported from the scene, the people of nearby villages were extremely well-organized and carried away the fruit without causing havoc.
If you love yogurt, this is bad news. A truck full of Yogurt (we have no information on the flavor) sideswiped the support posts on the highway and tore open its sides in Toronto. All the precious yogurt started falling on the streets and a lot of it was foiled. But the safe ones didn't survive the witnesses.
An admirer of wine? You would hate you missed this spill. Not that you would have got some of it. On highway 132 in California, two rigs collided and 48,000 pounds of wine went on the streets of California. Though nobody was seriously injured, the loss of so much wine itself is a huge blow.
Thanksgiving 2014 was around the corner. Turkey, meat, sweets and a whole lot of things were being carried to the city for sale and that's when a truck carrying 25,000 pounds of turkey met with an unfortunate accident on a busy road near Oakland, California.
Why do we call it a happy ending? Because the turkey was too damaged to be sold and they decided to donate it to the Alameda County Food Bank. "Receiving this volume of meat protein is rare for us any time of year – and a donation like this simply couldn’t come at a better time." The Chairman of the food bank continued, "This is going to add a significant helping of holiday joy to thousands of households throughout our community.”
Tiffany Lantz wouldn't have known that her legos could create so much trouble. This spill was not a result of trucks overturning but this mess was made by a private vehicle. A family had packed up all their legos in a crate and strapped it to the car's roof. Which eventually dislodged and threw the blocks everywhere.
The road was full of miniature toys and caused quite a bit of inconvenience to the commuters driving down Interstate 79 in West Virginia. Lantz later took responsibility for the accident and apologized.
Now, this is what we had promised. What can be crazier than a bloody spill all across the road? A truck carrying the body of a sperm whale had to stop when the whale suddenly burst open and pedestrians and motorists were covered in blood and guts. The truck was carrying the whale to a research center. Guess, the scientists will have to conduct their research in the middle of a highway.
Frozen meat, packed meat any kind of meat can add sparkle in your eye but certainly not this type. A semi-truck carrying processed meat to a plant where it would be used to make dog food collapsed and what came out was this. It happened in Australia in 2006.
It was a huge loss as all that was done with the meat was disposal.
Perhaps the least destructive spill on the list. The cleaning effort might have taken hours but it must not have been as creepy as the scrambled eggs or as dangerous as the flaming avocados. A tractor-trailer overturned in New York and quite a lot of pineapples were scattered on the roads.
Nobody was badly hurt and the driver escaped with minor injuries.
Wait! We are not done with avocados.
This has happened twice. The burning avocados! On 28 December 2017, a truck full of avocados met with an accident near Forreston, Texas. The avocados all burnt while the firefighters tried their best to make sure the fire doesn't expand.
Fortunately, no human was injured and the soon the fire was controlled.
This incident took place on May 12, 2003. A semi-truck carrying lumber wood overturned sending out all the wood on the roads. The highway was jammed while the wood was recollected. That's a lot of good wood to be wasted but it seems like it was salvageable and was going to be disposed of anyway (Not that the driver chose the right place to do it).
Guess, no truck can contain paint. We've already seen a colorful spill and a mono-color spill on the list. This time it was white. A big rig carrying numbers of containers couldn't balance itself and all the paint in the truck spilled on the road. The traffic was rerouted while the cleaning staff struggled to clean the mess.