Australia gasps as truckload of favourite brew in highway spill
09/10/2019 07:31
By Byron Kaye
SYDNEY, Oct 9 (Reuters) - A truck filled with beer rolled on
Australia's busiest highway, spilling thousands of cans of the
amber liquid and closing part of the road for hours, police
said.
The single-trailer truck went off the road on its way from
Queensland state to New South Wales, about 300 km (186 miles)
north of Sydney on Tuesday.
Its trailer, full of Victoria Bitter beer, rolled, spilling
"a large number" cans, a police chief inspector, Tony Power,
told Reuters.
The driver was not hurt though some of the tinnies were,
sending beer gushing onto the road.
"Some of them were squashed as they came out", Power said of
the tins of Australia's best-selling brew.
The highway's south-bound lanes were closed for an hour and
a half while emergency workers cleared the scene, but one lane
was closed for seven hours, said Power.
The driver, 24, tested negative for drugs and alcohol and
police suspected fatigue may have been a factor.
Victoria Bitter, or VB as it is commonly known, routinely
ranks as one of Australia's top-selling beers, and footage of
the accident was widely shared on social media - including by
the beer company's owner, Anheuser Busch Inbev NV ABI.BR .
"WARNING: Graphic image," a Facebook account apparently run
by VB wrote below a photo of the ill-fated truck, its contents
strewn over the road.
"Pleased to report driver didn't require medical transport.
Understand there were 3,000 locals ready to help," the post
said.
But Power said police had been on the lookout for members of
the public taking spilled beer cans and there had been none.
"Maybe all the people weren't fans of VB," he said.
"If it had been Reschs there would have been a riot," he
said, apparently referring to his favourite beer.
(Reporting by Byron Kaye
Editing by Robert Birsel)
((byron.kaye@thomsonreuters.com; +612 9321 8164; @byronkaye;))