A Truck Carrying $400K Worth of Jack Daniel's Overturned in Tennessee

Everyone knows that whole "don't cry over spilled milk" thing, but it's probably alright to get a little teary-eyed about a significant amount of spilled whiskey. Last Wednesday, a semi-truck transporting $400,000 worth of Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey overturned as the driver was making a left turn onto an interstate in Tennessee. The driver was not injured, but "several gallons" of booze were spilled onto the pavement.

According to a Facebook post from the Murfreesboro Police Department, the whiskey leak started when the trailer was being pulled upright by a wrecker. "The load of whiskey was picked up in Lynchburg and was heading to Nashville to the railroad terminal to be shipped to Israel," the police department wrote. ("I'm volunteering on THIS cleanup!" one enthusiastic local commented.)

Sadly, his kind of thing seems to happen a couple of times a year. In March 2016, a tractor-trailer carrying Busch beer collided with another truck that was hauling Frito-Lay chips in Florida. Neither driver was hurt, but a pretty good snack spread was left on the asphalt. "[Y]ou had Doritos and Busch beer all over I-95," a spokesperson for the Florida Highway Patrol told NBC News. "That's like a Super Bowl commercial right there."

In 2018, another truck loaded with 60,000 pounds of Busch beer overturned on Interstate 10 in Florida, leaving cans scattered all over the shoulder. "Thanks to all of those who have reached out to comfort the Busch family in our time of need," @BuschBeer tweeted, after sharing a news story about the beer spill. "A terrible tragedy."

And just last month, a semi carrying hundreds of cans of Leinenkugel's Toasted Bock rolled over on Interstate 94 in Wisconsin. "Glad to hear the driver is okay but sad to hear the truckload of Leinenkugels Toasted Bock is a total loss," Leinenkugel's president Dick Leinenkugel tweeted. "We will get busy brewing an additional replacement brew and apologize for any shortages in the interim."

As upsetting as those damaged kegs and cans are, it could be worse: in July 2017, a truck filled with live eels overturned on Oregon's Highway 101, covering the roadway with eels and lots and lots of sticky eel-slime. (The cargo was actually 7,500 pounds of hagfish, which are also called "slime eels" because of their shape, and because of the viscous fluid they secrete when they get stressed out.) "Cleanup on Aisle 101," the Oregon Highway Patrol tweeted, along with a photo of a car covered in the kind of gunk that can only be called a car wash's worst nightmare.

So while that Jack Daniel's accident was tragic, compared to eel slime, the cleanup could have been a lot worse.