July 23rd, 2008 → 3:08 am @ MReed // No Comments
If you like mashed potatoes, Iowa would have been the place for you. At least, if you like unorthodox ways of creating your mashed potatoes. Truckers haul all kinds of produce and other items all over the country at all hours of the day and night, and usually they arrive without any serious incident. They offload and they head out to do it all over again. No worries. But that’s not always the way it works, and sometimes accidents happen.
A trucker headed eastbound down Interstate 80 had to swerve to miss another vehicle that had apparently gotten too close or wasn’t paying attention, and when he did he lost control, hitting a bridge support and guardrail.
Unfortunately, it didn’t stop there. His truck, still traveling too fast to simply come to rest, then proceeded to tip over. When it did, it disgorged about 44,000 pounds of spuds. All over the place. They covered part of the interstate, another nearby road, and a ditch. The potatoes had left Idaho – where almost all potatoes seem to originate – and were on their way to Michigan.
The whole load was believed ruined, but the truck driver wasn’t injured. The spuds can be replaced and the truck repaired. No word on what happened to the car the truck driver swerved to avoid or the wayward potatoes.
Tags: potato spill, trucker news