A portion of Interstate 80 in Centre County was closed for five hours on Wednesday after a crash involving multiple tractor trailers left a mess of mozzarella on the road.
The crash happened at about 5 a.m. near mile marker 145.6 on I-80 eastbound in Snow Shoe Township when a 29-year-old New York man driving a Kenworth semi-truck struck a Volvo semi-truck driven by a 39-year-old Philadelphia man as he was attempting to exit to the rest area, according to state police at Rockview.
The Volvo truck was hauling approximately 40,000 pounds mozzarella cheese and “was split wide open,” leaving a debris field of 200 yards and requiring extensive cleanup, according to the Snow Shoe Fire Company.
The other truck was transporting sanitary wipes. No injuries were reported and no Hazmat response was required.
I-80 eastbound was closed between exit 133 at Kylertown and 147 at Snow Shoe until about 10 a.m. Centre County 911 reported that PennDOT put sand down but cautioned that the road was “a little slick” and traffic was still slow-moving.
All of the mozzarella had to be taken to the landfill because even packages that weren’t ruptured were unsalvageable after being unrefrigerated for hours, according to Snow Shoe Fire Company.
The driver of the Kenworth truck was cited for careless driving.
State police, Snow Shoe Fire Company, PennDOT, the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency and Bigler Boyz Towing and Eagle Towing responded to the scene.
