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Highway ‘slick’ with human waste causes wave of accidents, Connecticut police say

A truck spilling human waste caused a string of accidents on a Connecticut highway, police said.
A truck spilling human waste caused a string of accidents on a Connecticut highway, police said. Photo from Connecticut State Police

A tractor trailer leak caused the road to Bridgeport, Connecticut, to be paved with human excrement. But just for a few hours.

A large truck spilled raw sewage onto Interstate 95 on July 17, creating “slick conditions” that caused a string of late-night collisions near Bridgeport, according to state police reports.

Police were dispatched to the highway around 11 p.m. following a report of a truck leaking an unknown substance from its trailer.

Around the same time, two drivers lost control of their cars “due to fecal matter that was scattered throughout the roadway” and crashed into a concrete barrier around 10:30 p.m., police said.

Other vehicles, including a motorcycle and two state police cruisers, were also involved in accidents as a result of the coated roadway.

The truck driver, a 34-year-old man from Waterbury, eventually exited the highway and continued driving on local streets.

His employer contacted him and instructed him to pull over and wait for police.

When officers arrived, they arrested the driver. He was taken into custody and charged with 12 counts of reckless endangerment and having an unsecured load, police said.

Several minor injuries were reported as a result of the collisions, and the northbound section of I-95 was closed for about three hours, police said.

Bridgeport is located about 65 miles northeast of New York City.

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This story was originally published July 18, 2023 at 7:22 PM with the headline "Highway ‘slick’ with human waste causes wave of accidents, Connecticut police say."

BR
Brendan Rascius
McClatchy DC
Brendan Rascius is a McClatchy national real-time reporter covering politics and international news. He has a master’s in journalism from Columbia University and a bachelor’s in political science from Southern Connecticut State University.
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