Crash of semi hauling bananas shuts Ann Arbor freeway for hours
9 a.m. update: All lanes of the freeway have been reopened.
A semi truck carrying a load of bananas overturned on the westbound M-14 ramp to northbound U.S. 23 in Ann Arbor Wednesday night, at least partially spilling its load and closing the freeway for hours.
The driver was reportedly taken to an area hospital, but the extent of his injuries was not clear.
The crash occurred shortly before midnight Wednesday, said Lt. Ed Mantay of the Ann Arbor Township Fire Department.
Firefighters left the scene about 3:30 a.m., Mantay said, but workers were still at the accident scene cleaning up at 7:30 Thursday morning. One lane had been opened to allow traffic access to U.S. 23 from M-14.
The driver was hauling a 50-foot trailer fully loaded with bananas, Mantay said. The trailer turned over onto its side, and the top partially split open, spilling some of the bananas, he said. “They had to unload a bunch of it so they could get the truck upright,” he said.
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Comments
pb
Mon, Feb 11, 2013 : 2:47 p.m.
Must have been one heavy bunch to make that much difference.
mady
Fri, Feb 8, 2013 : 2:59 p.m.
yet another bad joke....... "slippin' and-a slidin', peepin' and-a hidin',.......
Greg
Fri, Feb 8, 2013 : 11:49 a.m.
Harry Chapin did a song about a truck of bannans that crashed that would seem to go well with this story.
mady
Fri, Feb 8, 2013 : 2:58 p.m.
what's a "bannan"?
kuriooo
Fri, Feb 8, 2013 : 1:30 a.m.
The driver's emergency phone call surely started out "ring ring ring bananna phone..." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5C6X9vOEkU
Ken
Fri, Feb 8, 2013 : 1:24 a.m.
"Yes, we have no bananas today."
TaxPayer
Thu, Feb 7, 2013 : 9:51 p.m.
What a bunch of Monkey Business!!
mun
Thu, Feb 7, 2013 : 9:17 p.m.
Donovan's "Mello Yellow" comes to mind.
A2comments
Thu, Feb 7, 2013 : 8:33 p.m.
http://youtu.be/NZZqnVYB4UA
tmc
Thu, Feb 7, 2013 : 7:41 p.m.
Slipped on a banana peel?
a2ta
Thu, Feb 7, 2013 : 7:09 p.m.
Must have been the U of M basketball players in their uniforms from the other night's game! They probably were practicing in the back of the semi and the load shifted!
Soulful Adrenaline
Thu, Feb 7, 2013 : 6:56 p.m.
He would destroy Mario Kart.
ArthGuinness
Thu, Feb 7, 2013 : 6:22 p.m.
Everybody's drive turned from mundane to plantain. /sorry, that's the best I could do
Liz
Thu, Feb 7, 2013 : 6:08 p.m.
Pics or it never happened.
music to my ear
Thu, Feb 7, 2013 : 5:54 p.m.
it so nice to see all the puns, but we are hopeful the driver wont be affected and have nitemares of giant bananas chasing him tonite it is funny in our house bananas are food on the go and I ran out and was going to run to the store ,but now I will head over to US 23 and grab a bunch or two.or three , etc.
harry b
Thu, Feb 7, 2013 : 5:48 p.m.
O'Doyle rules!
belboz
Thu, Feb 7, 2013 : 5:43 p.m.
Knock, knock, Who's there? Orange. Orange who? Orange you glad your not a Banana on US 23.
Kai Petainen
Fri, Feb 8, 2013 : 12:04 a.m.
usually knock knock jokes don't make me laugh... but.. .ha... this was a good one. hahahahahah
LXIX
Thu, Feb 7, 2013 : 5:29 p.m.
Talk about global warming. Now its fresh bananas from Livonia. Just be thankful it's not those lemons they used to send us from Detroit.
AlwaysLate
Thu, Feb 7, 2013 : 5:19 p.m.
Reminds me of the true life "30,000 Pounds Of Bananas" crash that happened in 1965 in Scranton, PA. In that crash, made famous by Harry Chapin, the driver died and several other people were injured. Glad no one died here...
YpsiGreen
Thu, Feb 7, 2013 : 5:15 p.m.
Just think of the follow up phone call to where the driver was supposed to be delivering: "Yes, we have no bananas; we have no bananas today."
rs
Thu, Feb 7, 2013 : 4:36 p.m.
"O'Doyle, I have a feeling your whole family is going down." -Billy Madison
Ricardo Queso
Thu, Feb 7, 2013 : 3:53 p.m.
Ain't no holla back girl
Dog Guy
Thu, Feb 7, 2013 : 3:48 p.m.
Oh, the bananity!
Ricardo Queso
Thu, Feb 7, 2013 : 5:55 p.m.
Oh, the banality!
justcurious
Thu, Feb 7, 2013 : 3:47 p.m.
Please update us on the driver's condition. Driving a semi can be very challenging considering the weather and the crazy things other drivers do out there. I think some of us forget how many safe miles these people pile on.
justcurious
Thu, Feb 7, 2013 : 10:43 p.m.
Thanks Cindy. I understand. Maybe patient confidentiality.
Cindy Heflin
Thu, Feb 7, 2013 : 8:53 p.m.
Joyce Williams, Huron Valley Ambulance spokeswoman, told me he was taken to the University of Michigan Hospital, but I've been unable to get any other information about his condition.
Ricardo Queso
Thu, Feb 7, 2013 : 3:43 p.m.
When life hands you an overturned truck of bananas make banana splits!
njneere
Thu, Feb 7, 2013 : 3:39 p.m.
Too bad there wasnt an ice cream truck and coke truck involved - free floats everywhere
A2ron
Thu, Feb 7, 2013 : 2:53 p.m.
I hope the driver is ok. My middle school years of Mario Kart, dodging banana peels are not useless after all. "LEEEEETS GOOOO" -Toad Voice
phyllisris
Thu, Feb 7, 2013 : 2:29 p.m.
And I liked "They had to unload a bunch of it so they could get the truck upright,".....pun intended, I would assume!!! :-)
FrankOZ
Thu, Feb 7, 2013 : 2:28 p.m.
Oh my God! Drivers must have been sliding all over the place on those banana peels. At least that's the picture I have in my mind.
oyxclean
Thu, Feb 7, 2013 : 5:03 p.m.
I'm imagining voracious packs of monkeys :p
operabethie
Thu, Feb 7, 2013 : 2:13 p.m.
I really wanted a photo! I would have liked to have seen all those 'naners all over the road!
Ann English
Sat, Feb 9, 2013 : 12:51 a.m.
I rather liked the photo that annarbor.com gave us regarding the liquor-loaded trailer accident: men lifting shrink-wrapped cases of unbroken liquor bottles, back onto pallets to be re-loaded to the trailer.
Greg
Thu, Feb 7, 2013 : 1:54 p.m.
I've seen this situation before. Whoever caused this accident deserves to have turtle shells thrown at them.
mady
Fri, Feb 8, 2013 : 2:54 p.m.
Greg, unfortunately there was an accident a couple of days prior.......overturned turtle-shell truck......har-har-har!
garrisondyer
Thu, Feb 7, 2013 : 5:41 p.m.
The purple spiky one.
EyeHeartA2
Thu, Feb 7, 2013 : 1:48 p.m.
In other news....Apes and Monkeys break out of Detroit Zoo and are seen traveling West.
Mark
Thu, Feb 7, 2013 : 1:37 p.m.
The situation is slippery and not appealing.
shadykay
Thu, Feb 7, 2013 : 6:47 p.m.
if I were driving I would have totally split!
arborani
Thu, Feb 7, 2013 : 2:22 p.m.
Someone had to say it.
Drew Montag
Thu, Feb 7, 2013 : 1:37 p.m.
Didn't happen if there aren't pictures. I was hoping to see bananas all over the place.
jcj
Thu, Feb 7, 2013 : 1:36 p.m.
Harry Belafonte - Banana Boat Song Simon And Garfunkel - Slip Sliding Away
WalkingJoe
Thu, Feb 7, 2013 : 1:09 p.m.
Why weren't the salt trucks out? The Road Commission has to be to blame for this even though the snow storm isn't supposed to hit until late tonight. I mean, why else could there have been a crash? We never have crashes on dry pavement, at least that's what everybody says.
mady
Fri, Feb 8, 2013 : 8:21 p.m.
Salt on a banana? Ewwwwwww!
Pamela LaForest Fulcher
Thu, Feb 7, 2013 : 7:56 p.m.
maybe the truck slipped on a banana peel?
WalkingJoe
Thu, Feb 7, 2013 : 3:10 p.m.
YpsiLivin, You're right I never new anyone to put salt on a banana, but I did work with a couple of guys who put ketchup on them (yuck) and one guy who put hot sauce on them double (double yuck).
YpsiLivin
Thu, Feb 7, 2013 : 2 p.m.
"Why weren't the salt trucks out?" Who puts salt on a banana? (Watermelons maybe, but not bananas...)
Kyle Feldscher
Thu, Feb 7, 2013 : 1:19 p.m.
Well played, WalkingJoe.
Atlas Shrugged
Thu, Feb 7, 2013 : 1:09 p.m.
Brings back fond memories of the late Harry Chapin's "30 thousand pounds of bananas."
Ann English
Sat, Feb 9, 2013 : 12:46 a.m.
I first thought about a Wayne County freeway accident last summer, in which apples were spilled. They said that the spillage rendered the apples unsellable. So they had to unload lots of bananas to get the trailer upright again? Reminds me of an accident last summer or fall on I-94 in which they had to unload lots of liquor to get a trailer upright again.
pegret
Fri, Feb 8, 2013 : 2:08 p.m.
Absolutely, Atlas...that was my first thought when I saw the headline!
GoNavy
Thu, Feb 7, 2013 : 1:07 p.m.
That's just a load of bananas.
Tom Teague
Thu, Feb 7, 2013 : 1 p.m.
Did the DOT set up loudspeakers and pipe in "Yakety Sax," during the cleanup?
Tom Teague
Thu, Feb 7, 2013 : 11:26 p.m.
Tried to find one of Benny Hill's "Yakety Sax" merry mixup scenes, but did not find one appropriate for posting under my name. However, I can't help but think of the fun he would have had with a load of bananas on the highway and a group of officials charged with the cleanup.
thecompound
Thu, Feb 7, 2013 : 7:24 p.m.
I think everyone needs to go on Itunes and listen to that "Yakety Sax" while reading this story, still cracking me up, lol.
arborani
Thu, Feb 7, 2013 : 2:20 p.m.
No, of course they played "Yes, we DID have bananas."
thecompound
Thu, Feb 7, 2013 : 1:07 p.m.
LOL, i never knew the name of that little ditty-----perfect comment!