Hundreds of cars have been hit by a truck crash on an Australian highway.
A total of 750 kilograms of metal debris was left strewn across one of the country’s busiest highways in the state of New South Wales in the early hours of May 2.
The incident on the M1 Pacific motorway, which heads towards Sydney, forced traffic police to close a long stretch of the highway for about 10 hours while they cleared the road. By then, about 300 cars had already been hit.
The truck driver noticed metal debris slowly falling from the rear storage compartment about 30 kilometres into the journey.
Some emergency vehicles that arrived to help with the mess of flat tires ran over the debris, causing it to burst.
The truck’s owner, NJ Ashton, has apologised for the problem and promised to help with the clean-up. Authorities used powerful magnets to remove the debris.
Highways and Traffic Police Commissioner Howard Collins said it was not something that could be cleared by simply going out onto the road and using a wheelbarrow, which required a number of magnetic devices and took a considerable amount of time.
New South Wales Transport Minister Jenny Atchison said it was an unexpected and unprecedented situation. He said the state government had used all available resources to clean up the area, but the debris was still spread over a long stretch of road.
Police confirmed that the 46-year-old truck driver had fully cooperated with inquiries.
Source: BBC