Tomatoes spill onto Interstate, causing crashes, quips and confusion

Sometimes in Solano County, California, where more than half the land is used for agriculture, residents can smell the earthy odor of tomatoes as big-rig trucks carry the product south to the Bay Area. Those trucks typically hold about 50,000 pounds of tomatoes in a hulking pile of red. A few are occasionally lost over the side thanks to sharp turns or bumps on the road.
But about 5 a.m. Monday, more than 150,000 tomatoes were scattered across the heavily trafficked Interstate 80 in Vacaville, California, after a big rig that had been transporting them collided with a vehicle and swerved, striking another vehicle before driving into the center median, officer Jason Tyhurst of the California Highway Patrol said.
F-size tomatoes covered eastbound lanes of the interstate across a dance of about 200 feet, creating a red mass that seemed to be about “2 feet deep,” Tyhurst said. He added that he was not being hyperbolic about the depth.
Soon, drivers on the interstate in the dark of early morning failed to detect the tomatoes and drove over them, essentially creating a gooey concoction of watery tomato juice, oil and dirt. Road conditions became dangerously slick.
“Those tomato skins, man,” Tyhurst said. “Once they hit the asphalt, it’s like walking on ice.”
One car became stuck on the slippery roadway and then was struck another vehicle, Tyhurst said. The tomatoes quickly caused a chain reaction of crashes, he added: Another car struck the two vehicles, and then another was sideswiped yet another swerving car.
Seven cars were involved in the crash. Three people, including the driver of the truck, had minor injuries, and a fourth was hospitalized with a broken leg, Tyhurst said.
The California Highway Patrol closed nearly every lane on both sides of Interstate 80, causing traffic and delays for morning commuters who looked on as cleanup crews with the California Department of Transportation worked to clear the tomatoes.
“We don’t see that amount of tomatoes fall off a truck and close a highway,” said Vince Jacala, a spokesperson for the department. “Like, usually it’s a couple here and there.”
When he saw photos of the tomato-splattered interstate, Jacala said he thought to himself, “Well, that’s going to close the highway for a while.”
Maintenance crews used a “scooper like a backhoe” to clear the roads and then tossed absorbent powder on the lanes. Jacala described the powder as “kitty litter but not as grainy.” Crews then used street sweepers, he added.
about 3 p.m., the interstate was fully reopened, the California Highway Patrol said.
The crash came during the state’s tomato season, a time when truck drivers load up on tomatoes in Solano County and use Interstate 80 to transport the fruit to the Bay Area and Sacramento, Jacala said. The state produces more than 90% of the country’s processed tomatoes, according to the California Tomato Growers Association.
“I’m just glad there wasn’t a fatality,” Tyhurst said, “because that easily could have been a fatality.”
The episode drew culinary quips online: A local news outlet wrote that cars had tried to drive through “the sauce.” One person on Twitter noted that there was “salsa on Interstate 80.” And Andrew G. Haubner, a reporter for KOVR-TV, a CBS affiliate in Sacramento, asked on Twitter: “You tell your boss you’re late for work because of a tomato spill on the highway. Do they believe you?”
Tyhurst said the California Highway Patrol had dealt with tomato spills before in Solano County, but not on this scale. Usually, they’re on less-trafficked roads.
He was not sure whether other fruits or vegetables could cause such dangerous conditions.
But Jacala guessed that tomatoes posed a particular hazard because they are soft, squishy and slippery.