SHAMOKIN DAM -- A 16-wheel rig carrying 26 tons of corn to Maryland rolled over onto its passenger side in the right southbound lane of Route 11-15 at 2:30 p.m. leaving a mountain of produce on the road and hillside in front of the Kmart Shopping Center.
Rick Sherman, of Harrisburg, driving at Peterbilt truck, said he picked up the corn earlier in the day in Hall, N.Y.. "I made the sharp curve in front of the Kmart, looked in my mirror and saw the side wheels lifting. The rig just tipped over. Good thing I was wearing my seat belt." Sherman said he was not injured.
Police at the scene would not speculate on the speed of the truck at the time of the accident.
Capt. Bradley Aurand, of the Shamokin Dam Fire Department got the call about the accident and immediately had his team check the scene for anyone who might be injured, and for debris and oil spillage.
"We closed one lane of southbound traffic and began clearing the road of the corn," he said.
Norm Conrad, with the Penn State Cooperative Extension, examined the corn to see what might be salvageable, and what corn had to be thrown away.
"I checked for oil and for dirt," he said. "There were still husks on the corn, which protected the kernels. A lot of corn is still in the trailer part of the truck and I think made much of that is still usable. The corn on the road has to be junked."
By 4:30 p.m., road crews from Kellers Towing, of Selinsgrove, used two Caterpillar lift trucks to shovel the corn out of the truck and off the hillside. The corn was piled into a container that was taken to Kellers.
Observing it all was Conrad. He said he's seen worse road spills. "The worst, hardest cleanup effort I've ever seen were for 10,000 gallons of egg whites spilled on a road. There was also a truck that left 10 tons of frozen liver on a highway. The liver was headed to a dog food plant. This spill wasn't so bad by comparison."
Assisting at the scene were police and fire and rescue personnel from the Shamokin Dam Police Department, Shamokin Dam Fire Department and Kellers Auto Body, Towing and Recovery.
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