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Massive butter spill makes even bigger jam

Dairy truck spilled over 45,000 pounds of butter, margarine and whipped cream

Loulla-Mae Eleftheriou-Smith
Sunday 03 August 2014 12:34 BST
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Around 45,000 pounds of butter, margarine and whipped cream tins spilled out of the truck onto the Interstate in Indianapolis, US.
Around 45,000 pounds of butter, margarine and whipped cream tins spilled out of the truck onto the Interstate in Indianapolis, US. (ABC News)

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A dairy truck created an incredibly slippery mess when its contents burst out of the vehicle and spilled out onto a highway in Indianapolis, America, creating an almighty traffic jam.

Around 45,000 pounds worth of butter, margarine and tins of whipped cream tumbled out of the truck and onto Interstate 465 on Saturday morning, police said, leaving the highway covered in a slick coating and churning up traffic for hours.

The truck’s driver is thought to have fallen asleep at the wheel during his overnight drive, causing the truck to crash on the Interstate and split in two. The driver was not injured.

Police were left cleaning up the mess by scooping the dairy products into trucks while coating the road in chemicals to clean up the greasy road.

Captain David Dursten, spokesman for the Indiana State Police told ABC News: “Our preliminary conclusion is that the truck driver fell asleep while driving, hit a barrier, and crashed around 3:30am.

“Our crew is using a sand truck and a front-end loader to absorb and scoop up the sticky coat on the road into trash bins.

“I was joking with my colleagues, wonder if anyone called IHOP and ordered 2,000 pounds of pancakes,” he said, referring to the US-based restaurant chain that specialises in breakfast foods.

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