NJ crashes have resulted in many strange spills on road

The sight of lemons spilled across Route 17 Wednesday caused a stir in North Jersey while also heavily delaying traffic.

It's an unusual sight but not the first time something odd was strewn across a New Jersey road. From more fruit, to rotten meat, drinks and even cash, here are some of the other peculiar things that wound up on the street following a crash in the Garden State.

In December 2018 a malfunction with the rear door of an armored Brink's truck scattered money across Route 3 west in East Rutherford. Traffic stopped as people got out of their cars to scoop up some cash. The scene caused two crashes.

Though the cash spill came just in time for the holiday season, it was short lived. Police told people to give the money back or they could face a theft charge.

A full menu of drinks have flooded North Jersey roads over the years.

In September 2009 a box truck carrying 440 cases of wine flipped over in front of the Montclair Art Museum. The brakes apparently went out before the crash.

It took 12 hours in August 2014 to clean up a Gatorade spill on Route 287 near Ringwood. A trailer flipped over a bridge and into a body of water.

All the way back in November 1965 a bunch of empty soda bottles littered the road of the North Franklin Turnpike in Ho-Ho-Kus. The truck driver said his vehicle struck a catch basin, causing the mishap.

In similar fashion, milk spilled across Bergenfield in May 2017 at Lake and South Front streets. No use crying over that though.

Though not from a crash, the mysterious pasta found on the side of the road in a creek in Old Bridge grabbed people's attention earlier this year. The 500 pounds of pasta found in April sparked a search for answers on how it wound up next to the stream by Hilliard and Mimi roads.

The answer turned out more morose than expected. A military veteran moving out of his mother's home after her death seemingly found a stockpile of old food that she had kept in the house and apparently dumped it along the creek, NBC reported.

While the spilled lemons may have left a nice smell in the air, it was not the case for the chicken waste spilled on Route 55 in Deptford Township back in February. At least it avoided the summer heat that would have exacerbated the stench.

Police say the dump truck collided with a Toyota passenger vehicle, causing traffic delays for several hours near the scene, the local ABC affiliate reported.

Trucks carrying construction equipment and material are plentiful on the local roads so it's no surprise there have been some accidental spills. For example:

A few hundred gallons of methyl mathecrylate, a highly flammable substance used in the manufacturing of acrylic paints, spilled on I-287 in Riverdale in May 2008.

Mineral oil spread across Van Winkle Avenue in Hawthorne in March 2016 when a truck clipped a transformer and knocked it to down.

That same month, wet cement spilled on Valley Road in Clifton.

In August 2007 three lanes of Route 287 north were covered in steal beams and bolts following a crash near exit 36.