AG百家乐在线官网

Tens of thousands of tomatoes cause traffic chaos after lorry spills load on to Californian highway

According to the California Highway Patrol, fist-sized tomatoes covered eastbound lanes on the motorway for about 200ft (60m), creating a red mass that seemed to be about "two feet deep".

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Crash scatters tomatoes over highway
Why you can trust Sky News

A lorry carrying tens of thousands of tomatoes crashed and spilled its load over a Californian highway, causing a seven-car pile-up and major delays.

Several lanes on Interstate 80 near Alamo in Vacaville, California were closed following the crash on Monday.

The incident happened at about 5am, when the truck collided with a car and swerved, hitting another vehicle before driving into the central reservation, scattering more than 150,000 tomatoes on to the road, police said.

The crash happened in the early hours of Monday morning

According to the California Highway Patrol, fist-sized tomatoes covered eastbound lanes on the motorway for about 200ft (60m), creating a red mass that seemed to be about "two feet deep".

Drivers, unaware of the incident, drove over them, creating a gooey mix of tomato juice, oil and dirt.

Before the road was closed, one car stuck in the road was hit by another vehicle, causing a chain reaction of crashes involving seven cars.

Three people, including the driver of the truck, had minor injuries and a fourth person was taken to hospital with a broken leg, patrol officer Jason Tyhurst said.

More on California

The California Highway Patrol closed the interstate on both sides, causing traffic and delays, while the spillage was cleaned up.

Clean up crews worked to clear the tomatoes and make the road safe to dry on Monday
Image: Clean up crews worked to make the road safe to drive on. Pic California Highway Police Solano/Twitter

The road was reopened at about 3pm on Monday morning.

Vehicles laden with tomatoes grown in the area use Interstate 80 at this time of year to transport the fruit to the Bay Area and Sacramento.