i 95 pennies spilled
A truck overturned and caught fire, spilling blank pennies all over I-95 in New Castle, Delaware.
According to media reports Saturday, the crash happened just before 2:00 a.m. Thursday morning near the I-295 split.
police say the tractor trailer, carrying blank pennies and headed to the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia, slammed into a Jersey barrier, overturned and caught fire.
Images from Chopper 6 HD and the Action Cam showed tens of thousands of blank pennies covering the roadway.
The driver suffered minor injuries and received treatment at the scene.
There was no immediate word what led to the crash or if the driver would face any charges.
For hours, throughout the morning rush hour, multiple crews worked to clear the pennies, debris and even spilled gasoline from the highway.
Delaware State Police shut down all lanes of northbound I-95, forcing traffic off the roadway at the Rt. 141/Basin Rd. exit.
Traffic was detoured onto U.S. Rt. 13 North to I-295 North.
Action News found a huge backup Airport Road as commuters who had been detoured off of I-95 inched along.
Some were shocked to learn a sea of copper was part of the delay.
“I should’ve been at work a half-hour hour ago,” said Nancy Stubbs of Elkton, Md.
“It’s a mess out here,” said Daryll Bradley of Bear, Del.
“Nothing you can do about,” said another motorist. “We’re stuck here.”
Fox 29 estimates that a total of 40,000 pounds of pennies wound up covering the road. Each penny weighs 0.088 ounces. So, if we’re doing the math correctly, 40,000 pounds worth would equate to something north of 7 million pennies.
All lanes reopened shortly after 3:15 p.m.
All I can say is that I think that if our government wants to save a little money they should stop making pennies! Most vending and other machines don’t accept them, very few people use them (at least for paying, they just get them as change), or they don’t pay in cash to begin with! And for those of us that do, there are enough pennies out there already! How many people (or sometimes even places for donations) do you see with big jars full of pennies? We put our pennies in there, throw them in wishing wells, or use them as tokens for games, but we rarely spend them. The government stopped making 1/2 cent pieces a long time ago, so this should just be another example of history repeating itself! But I guess it also goes along with many people’s idea of our government being “stupid”.
The problem is that the government doesn’t want to put their friends out of a job, so they have to keep making pennies to keep all their friends in the mint employed. Since producing less coins is not an option, I would suggest they stop making pennies and use those workers to produce a $5 coin.