Tragic Food Truck Accidents

In a tragic toaster pastry accident, a trailer full of Pop-Tarts fell into a Pennsylvania river after a tractor-trailer flipped over a concrete barrier. Pictures of the aftermath show cardboard boxes scattered along the embankment to the Susquehanna River. This isn’t the first truck accident to involve edible cargo being strewn across roadways, leaving food fans everywhere saddened.

The Pop-Tart accident occurred on U.S. 22/322, reducing eastbound traffic to just one lane. The driver walked away from the accident with minor injuries, but the strawberry Pop-Tarts didn’t fare as well. About 1,500 containers were left strewn on the riverbanks, surrounding the wrecked trailer, and in the Susquehanna River. In addition to being a little soggy, the Pop Tarts may have also come into contact with some of the 100 gallons of fuel that leaked out of the truck during the accident. Luckily, the fuel has been contained.

Unfortunately, the Pop-Tarts are not the only scrumptious treat to fall victim to accidents this year.

In January, a truck of carrying tons of mackerel overturned in Northern Ireland. Fish were piled up to two feet in height in some places when they landed in a farmer’s field. The driver was not seriously injured and the road was reopened the same day. Photos of this accident are far more bizarre than the shots of the fallen Pop-Tarts, as the mackerel had no packaging; pictures show an overturned truck with thousands of fish spilling out.

Beer also has a tough time getting from point A to point B. In 2009, a truckload of Miller Lite spilled onto the Eisenhower Expressway in the suburbs of Chicago. The truck rolled off a ramp, spilling its cargo onto a median. NBC 5 reported that “there was a big gaper delay as grown men driving by wiped back tears or tried to figure out if they could snag a can without anyone noticing.”

The Oddee claims there was an accident in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, that sent 2,184 cases of Grolsch beer crashing onto Highway 401. Without any credible news sources carrying the story and having lived nearby at the time of the supposed accident, I am certain that this did not occur the way the site reports it. The photos of the supposed crash definitely weren’t taken on the 401; I’ve been in enough traffic jams on that highway to recognize it. Comments suggest that the crash in the photos may have actually happened in The Netherlands, but there are no credible news stories to be found for that theory either. Based on the photos, a whole lot of Grolsch ended up on a highway, there’s just no confirmation of which one.

20 tons of food was spilled on a highway in Illinois last year when a tractor-trailer carrying frozen baked goods collided with a truck carrying bratwurst. Really! Cake, donuts, cinnamon rolls, and bratwurst sausage littered the I-74. It took cleanup crews over seven hours to remove all of the slick grease from the road. The two drivers were taken to a local hospital and released.

Photos of these crashes are always heartbreaking to those who wish all of the delicious food wasn’t going to waste. Apparently in Brazil, it doesn’t. There’s a video posted on LiveLeak that shows the public helping out with the cleanup of a beer truck accident by taking some unbroken bottles. Wasted food is a terrible thing, but at least the drivers in each accident were all right.