I-95 “shiny” after nickels spilled on road

The tractor trailer carrying the coins rear-ended another tractor-trailer and sent it off the roadway at about 5:30 a.m. Wednesday. The truck with $187,000 worth of nickels overturned, spilling part of its cargo of nickels into the road. (AP photo)

The Associated Press

9/17/2008

MIMS, Fla. — Portions of Interstate 95 were closed — and sparkling in the morning sun — Wednesday after a tractor trailer carrying $187,000 worth of nickels crashed, scattering the coins across the road and killing one person.

“It’s shiny across the roadway,” said Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Kim Miller. “There are nickels in the grass, across the interstate.”

The southbound lanes of I-95 in Brevard County north of Titusville were closed as authorities secured the scene.

Miller said the coins were on their way from Philadelphia to the U.S. Treasury in Miami, where they were set to be distributed to banks.

She said the tractor trailer carrying the coins rear-ended another tractor-trailer and sent it off the roadway at about 5:30 a.m. Wednesday. Miller said the truck with the coins overturned, spilling part of its cargo of nickels into the road.

A passenger in the truck carrying the coins died at the scene.

The drivers of both rigs were hospitalized in stable condition.

Miller said it was not immediately known how many nickels spilled onto the roadway.

She said some remained bagged inside the truck’s trailer, and that the Secret Service and U.S. Treasury were on the scene trying to decide how to pick them up “and to make sure nobody touches any of the nickels.”

“I don’t suspect they’re going to be picking up these nickels one by one,” she said. “Maybe with shovels.”