Utah Roads Shut Down Due To Burgers And Beer

Red meat and beer clogged major traffic arteries Tuesday, slowing the morning commute.

Motorists on Interstate 15 were impeded by a piles of hamburgers after a truck spilled a load of the patties, blocking the northbound lanes for four hours.

The driver of a tractor-trailer carrying 40,000 pounds of hamburger patties dozed off around 5 a.m., said Utah Highway Patrol trooper Cameron Roden. The truck driver's rig drifted to the left side of the freeway near 2300 North and crashed into a wall and an overhead sign, which ripped open his trailer, spilling hamburger over the north and southbound lanes of the interstate.

Motorists were detoured off I-15 and onto surface streets to bypass the meat.

UHP quickly cleared southbound lanes, but northbound lanes were not reopened until about 9:30 a.m., Roden said. No one was injured in the incident.

A second truck spill east of Morgan caused minor delays.

Before 7:30 a.m., a truck was heading westbound on Interstate 84 about a half-mile east of Morgan. The driver was traveling too fast for the snowy conditions there and lost control, Roden said.

The truck slipped off to the left, hit a guardrail, and flipped over on its side. The impact split the truck open, spilling Fat Tire Beer being shipped from Colorado, Roden said.

No other vehicles were involved in the accident, and the truck driver was slightly dazed but uninjured. Troopers blocked the left lane and directed traffic around to the right side.