A Highway Shut Down for 9 Hours After a Massive Maple Syrup Spill

Sometimes, a news story comes along that makes you think, “hey, maybe cartoons aren’t so over-the-top after all.” That very thing happened to us once again yesterday, in an event that forced us to wonder whether Wile E. Coyote had been foiled in his latest plot to catch Road Runner. People reported that over in Fontana, California, a semi-truck overturned, causing hundreds of gallons of syrup to spill out onto the highway it was driving down. Naturally, chaos ensued. Here’s what we know. 

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Syrup + Traffic = Bad

Apparently, the spill occurred at around 11:20 a.m., thankfully well out of rush hour (which would have slowed to a…wait for it…treacly pace). The semi-truck was driving down the 10 Freeway at Citrus Avenue when the accident occurred. Officials aren’t yet clear on why the truck overturned, but when it did, a huge river of syrup spilled out, stretching across the whole highway. The syrup was apparently an inch thick, and the thought of that amount of sugar on tarmac is, for some reason, making me feel a little bit queasy. 

As you might expect, this completely stopped the flow of traffic, and cars were backed up for more than five miles. Eventually, vehicles had to be diverted entirely as the clean-up operation was in full force. The good news is that nobody was injured, and aside from a fair few people’s days ruined and a lot of syrup everywhere, no enormous harm seems to have been done. 

Turns Out, Cleaning Up Gallons of Syrup Is Really Hard

The clean-up operation for the syrup spill started with using what People called “absorbent material,” which ultimately didn’t work. Officials from the California Department of Transportation then had to drive over a water truck, with which they hosed the syrup down before hoovering it all up. 

Naturally, when news of this incident broke upon the good old internet, everybody was falling over themselves to suggest humorous alternative ways to remove the syrup. “Did they try a giant pancake?” said one comment on CBA LA’s Facebook page. “Have you tried calling Winnie the Pooh?” asked another. Laugh it up, people!

There’s also no word on where the syrup was heading: In my head, it was carrying a load of those big barrels of Costco maple syrup, although I know that’s probably not the case. But look. Just let me have my fun.