Nails Bring Traffic to Screeching Halt

A mystery spill-and-run driver really nailed ‘em on California 99.

Somewhere between Tulare and and Earlimart, a truck accidentally dumped its cargo of about 60,000 nails in the northbound lanes of the heavily traveled highway.

Predictably, the spill caused a bit of trouble.

More than 40 automobiles and trucks pulled off with flat tires, according to the California Highway Patrol. Some cars had two or three flats. One 18-wheel truck rig had eight flats--possibly a world’s record.

The accident occurred about 9:30 p.m. Thursday when a tractor-trailer rig carrying a cargo of nails hit a bump and a dozen boxes of nails bounced off the trailer and onto the highway. Each box contained 5,000 nails.

The 2-inch nails were Teflon-coated, which makes it easier for them to be pounded into wood--or to puncture tires.

Within a very short time, the night was filled with the hisses of deflating tires and the curses of enraged drivers.

“CHP units helped 30 to 40 drivers who had flat tires, and just about every tow truck for miles around was called out to change flats and tow away cars and trucks that had more than one flat tire,” one officer reported.

Caltrans, U.S. Forestry Service fire crews and CHP officers swept the nails off the roadway.