RICHMOND, Maine — More than a dozen firefighters worked overnight Saturday to unload thousands of pounds of French fries that spilled when a fully-loaded tractor-trailer crashed just south of Exit 43 on Interstate 295.
No one was injured in the incident, which marked the second time in six months that potatoes have littered Richmond’s stretch of the interstate after such a crash.
The driver, 28-year-old Charles Ohalloran of Prince Edward Island, Canada, told police he was distracted by a water bottle in the cab, swerved and went off the road, rolling the rig — owned by Midland Trucking — over into the grass and up against a stand of trees, Maine State Police Trooper Nick Gleeson said of “The French Fry Incident.”
Ohalloran was reportedly climbing out of the cab through the passenger door when Richmond police, and then Gleeson, arrived.
The 53-foot tractor-trailer was fully loaded with French fries, Gleeson said, which had to be removed before the truck could be towed.
While Gleeson said it’s the responsibility of the towing company to empty the truck before towing it, “it ended up being Bowdoinham and Richmond firefighters who made a human chain to remove all the fries.”
Unloading each 36-pound box — “lots and lots of boxes” — took until just before 6 a.m. Sunday, he said.
Police contacted the Maine Department of Agriculture, which condemned the food.
One lane of I-295 southbound remained open throughout the night.
That stretch of road may well become known as Potato Alley, given the May 2014 crash that dumped a truckload of potatoes in nearly the same spot. The driver of that truck, who swerved to avoid a moose, suffered minor leg injuries.
Just two years before that, a tractor-trailer crash in the northbound lane of I-195 in nearby Bowdoinham nearly dumped 41,000 pounds of butter onto the road. In that case, the butter, in 40-pound blocks, was salvaged and delivered to its destination in another truck.
So while Bowdoinham had the butter, Richmond “must be known for potatoes now,” Richmond Police Chief Scott MacMaster said.