New Jersey Turnpike Troubles

It is interesting how many trucks have overturned on the New Jersey Turnpike lately, spilling out curious cargo. The latest mishap involved a truckload of chickens. The Times investigates:

First there were horses, crabs, pasta and the flaming cake mix. Then came thousands in bills and coins dumped onto the roadway, in what has been a bizarre year of spills and escapes on the New Jersey Turnpike.

So the appearance yesterday of hundreds of chickens on the road at Exit 3 in Camden County was taken in stride by officials of the New Jersey Turnpike Authority.

“South Jersey is not the place you want to be if you are poultry or live seafood,” said Joe Orlando, a spokesman for the authority.

The accident occurred when a northbound tractor-trailer carrying the chickens was struck from behind by another tractor-trailer about 3:30 a.m. and burst into flames, Mr. Orlando said.

The driver and a passenger in the truck carrying the chickens escaped, he said, as did the driver of the other truck.

And so did many of the chickens – hundreds of them, fleeing the burning hulk and wandering up the roadway and into the woods.

Rescuers who arrived on the scene a short time later were able to herd the chickens along the turnpike and capture most of them, Mr. Orlando said. But at least half the cargo of chickens died in the fire, he said.

In my mind I see that ubiquitous car chase money shot, when the getaway vehicle narrowly misses a truck full of chickens, causing the load to spill across the highway. More:

It has been a strange year for spills and sightings on the turnpike.

Early this year, two horses escaped from a farm not far from yesterday’s crash site, and were spotted running next to cars along the turnpike. In July, a truck carrying thousands of live Maryland crabs overturned, also in South Jersey. Two weeks later in Woodbridge, there was what Mr. Orlando called “the pasta incident.” A truck carrying packaged pasta crashed, burning more than a few servings of dried noodles.

In the highest-profile spill this year, a truck overturned last week, spilling thousands of dollars of its $4 million in coins and bills. The spill, near Exit 12 in Linden, drew many people to the site, Mr. Orlando said. Ninety-five percent of the money was recovered.

The following day, a truck skidded on a mattress it had snagged at Exit 10, crashed into a tollbooth and burst into flames, destroying not only the tollbooth, but also the load of cake mix on the truck.

Mr. Orlando said the turnpike had a rich history of odd spills. In 1987, a truck carrying thousands of live turkeys crashed, sending the turkeys onto the roadway. Motorists stopped to catch them, and for many, it was finders keepers, he said.

“This year there’s been more than usual,” he said of the spills, adding that he was preparing for the next one. “I still haven’t come up with a good reason why the chicken crossed the turnpike.”