Truck Accident Lawyer News

SPRINGFIELD, MO – A semi truck accident spilled a load of mayonnaise Saturday evening, February 26, on a highway in Greene County, Missouri. The single vehicle crash occurred in the westbound lanes of Interstate 44 near the juncture with U.S. Highway 65 in the city of Springfield, MO. The truck accident area is in the southwest part of Missouri, about 128 miles east of Parsons, Kansas and about 78 miles north of Harrison, Arkansas.

On Saturday an unidentified man was driving a semi trailer truck through Greene County in southwest Missouri. The semi driver was hauling approximately 40,000 pounds of mayonnaise at the time of the truck accident. The driver’s destination is not known however the boxes were labeled for delivery to Subway, a restaurant chain based in Milford, Connecticut. It is believed the cargo was on its way to several of the company’s restaurants.

At about 5:45 p.m. the driver had just entered the city of Springfield, still traveling west on I-44. The tractor trailer was approaching the juncture with U.S. Highway 65 when the semi driver suddenly lost control of his rig near mile marker 82. According to police investigating the truck accident, the 18 wheeler crossed over the westbound lanes and crashed into the cable barrier running down the center of the interstate. The semi truck entered the median and continued forward, passing between support pillars for an overpass bridge for U.S. 65, hit a pylon and crashed into a guardrail. The trailer section of the semi practically exploded upon impact and 40,000 pounds of mayonnaise sprayed across the highway and into the eastbound lanes of I-44.

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The traffic that was behind the semi trailer on the highway was able to slow down and no other persons or vehicles were involved in the truck accident.

Police and local rescue personnel quickly responded to the collision. The semi driver was able to get out of the partially crushed cab section of the tractor trailer and was not injured in the truck accident.

The spilled cargo of mayonnaise coated the eastbound lanes of the interstate, and the oil-based substance made the road slick and dangerous. Police had to shut down a section of the interstate in both directions and reroute traffic around the truck accident site.

Missouri Department of Transportation highway crews spent hours cleaning the mayonnaise off the eastbound lanes of the interstate. Front loaders were brought to the truck accident site and scooped up the condiment. The next step was to spread lime powder over the remaining mayonnaise to soak it up off the asphalt.

Thunderstorms were expected to hit the area in just a few hours and police hoped to get the truck accident mess cleared before the rains started and mixed with the oily mayonnaise, making the road surfaces even slicker and more dangerous.

Crews used a heavy duty wrecker to tow the destroyed cab and trailer sections of the truck out of the median and off the interstate. MDOT also sent engineers to the truck accident site to inspect the US 65 overpass bridge support pillars. They determined that the pillars were undamaged and structurally sound, and safe for travel.

All lanes of I-44 were opened by 2:30 a.m. Sunday morning, almost nine hours after the truck accident.

Police have reconstructed the single vehicle crash but have not released their final determinations. The cause of the truck accident is still not known, nor is the reason the semi driver lost control of the 18 wheeler. Police have not confirmed if the driver submitted to a toxicology screening which is often mandatory after a commercial truck incident.

If the driver is found responsible for the crash, he or his employer may be compelled to pay for the cost of cleaning up the truck accident site.

The truck accident remains under investigation.

For more information about Missouri trucking laws, truck injury causes and victims’ rights, contact truck accident lawyers Gordon, Elias & Seely, LLP for expert truck accident advice. Visit our Missouri truck accident lawyer page for more information about Missouri truck accidents. For a free initial consultation, talk to a truck accident attorney at 1.800.773.6770.

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