Thursday, May 10, 2018

Chocolate Shortage in Poland

Poland is no land of chocolate, but motorists Wednesday encountered a stretch of chocolate-covered highway after a tanker truck overturned in the early morning.

The vehicle, which was carrying about 12 tons of chocolate, came to rest across the median barrier, spilling its sweet fillings across six lanes of the A2 motorway and blocking traffic in both directions between the towns of Wrzesnia and Slupca in Western Poland,

according to the Associated Press and AFP. The driver was taken to a hospital with a broken arm, but no one else was injured, TVN24 reported. It is not immediately clear what caused the truck to overturn. Video by local media showed a loader scooping up some of the brown goo. The liquid chocolate began to harden, which made cleaning up more difficult, local authorities said. “The cooling chocolate is worse than snow,” Senior Brig. Bogdan Kowalski of Slupca’s fire brigade said, according to the Associated Press.

He added that before the highway was closed, some drivers, who decided that a pool of chocolate was no impediment to their travels, spread the chocolate for several kilometers. Removing the truck and chocolate would take a few hours, Marlena Kukawka, Slupca’s police spokeswoman, told the New York Times, adding that this part of the A2 rarely has accidents. She told TVN24 that the cleanup crew, which was using hot water to melt and wash away the chocolate, was in good spirits, according to NPR.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen so many smiles on the faces of emergency rescue folks and police officers at the scene of an accident,” Kukawka said. A local journalist was less fortunate. TVN24 reported that one of its reporters at the scene was walking along the edge of the shoulder to avoid the chocolate only to slip and fall into a ditch, where there was, indeed, more chocolate.

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