A Truck Spilled 12 Tons of Gooey Liquid Chocolate Onto a Highway in Poland

What’s the only thing worse than spilled milk? Spilled liquid chocolate—12 tons of it, down the proverbial drain. This was the sad state of affairs that resulted when a tanker truck hauling melted milk chocolate toppled over on a highway in Poland, coating six lanes of traffic in the sugary goo.

The truck reportedly collided with a traffic barrier on the A2 highway in western Poland, ABC reports. Aside from the driver, who suffered a broken arm, no injuries were reported. It did, however, create a rather sticky situation for motorists and clean-up crews. Some drivers continued on their merry way, spreading streaks of chocolate for miles, according to The Washington Post. The chocolate was so thick that first responders left footprints in the muck, and heavy machinery had to be brought in to scrape it off the roads.

Traffic was eventually shut down in both directions, and crews raced to scoop up the chocolate before it hardened on the roads. After chocolate congeals, it’s harder to clean up than either snow or oil, according to a firefighter at the scene and the chocolate manufacturer, respectively.

Hot water was used to melt and wash away the chocolate, and the whole clean-up was expected to take several hours. First responders were good sports about it, though. Marlena Kukawka, a spokesperson for the Slupca police department, said, “It's been a long time since I've seen so many smiles on the faces of emergency rescue folks and police officers at the scene of an accident," according to NPR.

Chocolate lovers, however, were likely horrified by the scene, which recalls images of Augustus Gloop flailing around in a river of chocolate in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.

This melty mess was no joy to clean up, but it isn’t the grossest truck spill to occur in recent years. There was that one time a whale carcass exploded as it was being hauled away, showering a Taiwanese town in guts and goo.

[h/t The Washington Post]