Butter Spills All Over Turnpike, Sweet Potatoes on I-78

NEWARK — A spilled load of butter early Monday was the second food product in the past day that wound up all over a New Jersey highway.

A tractor trailer overturned on the New Jersey Turnpike inner lanes just north of exit 14 for Newark Liberty International Airport and I-78 after 1 a.m. and dropped a load of butter onto both the inner and outer lanes, according to State Police.

There was no access to the western spur for several hours as the investigation and cleanup got underway. The butter was pushed off the outer lanes, allowing traffic to the western spur from the inner lanes by 5 a.m.

State Police did not disclose the circumstances of the crash.

A trucker lost control of his rig on Sunday afternoon and overturned into the center median from the eastbound lanes of Route 78 in Readington, according to State Police spokesman Lt. Lawrence Peele.

Pictures posted to Facebook by Adam Rempfer show heavy damage to driver's side of the cab and the left side wall of the trailer separated allowing a load of sweet potatoes to spill and crush the guard rail.

Rempfer's pictures show a front end loader and a lineup of workers offloading the boxes containing the potatoes into a dumpster placed in the left lane.

The pictures indicate crews also replaced the crushed guard rail.

Peele said the driver, whose identity was not disclosed, suffered minor injuries but refused to be hospitalized.