Chalk this one up to a case of not drinking while driving ... despite the fact that after a truck overturned on a road in New Jersey, there was booze everywhere.
It was the morning of Tuesday, June 4 that a truck lugging cargo in excess of 6,000 gallons of Scotch whisky turned on its side, resulting in the leakage of the liquor that subsequently caught on fire.
The accident took place on King Georges Road, located in a mixed residential/commercial Fords section of Newark, New Jersey.
"For us, it is unusual," Fords Fire Company official Frank DellaPietro said as relayed by the New York Post on Wednesday, June 5. We usually deal with gasoline tankers on the Turnpike, but to get a whisky tanker turning over in the middle of a residential neighborhood is uncommon."
DellaPietro went on to say that, as there's no distinction between gasoline and Scotch when it comes to putting out a fire, the fire department definitely had its work cut out for them.
"[I]t's a flammable liquid," DellaPietro said. "Once you put foam on it [the fire], [it's out.]"
According to Police Capt. Roy Hoppock as relayed by New Jersey's own Asbury Park Press, the tanker in question was owned by B-Line Trucking and overturned around 9 a.m. before catching on fire.
Authorities have not said where the truck was going or which brand of Scotch whisky the vehicle was carrying.
As told by Chief Dan Gregan of the Fords Fire Company, the tanker "clipped a telephone pole" before smashing into a Cadillac, which resulted in fulmination. It's not yet been determined whether the truck's diesel fuel or Scotch whiskey first caught on fire. Whichever the case may be, it took 10 minutes for the fire to put out and eight hours for all vehicles at the scene to be removed.
There have not been any serious injuries reported, including that involving the truck driver who was taken to Raritan Bay Medical Center, Perth Amboy Division "as a precaution," according to Gregan and local police.
The police added that the fire did not pose any real threat to the area neighborhood.
How did clipping the telephone pole and knocking into the Cadillac cause the truck to ignite?
"There's a relief valve on top of the tank," DellaPietro said. "When pressure builds up, it releases it. Some of the product came out of that hatch. When it flipped over, it made sparks on ground and that's how it ignited."
When the valve closed, the flow of the booze was shut off.
As the Post put it, "What a waste of perfectly good booze!"
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