It’s a scene straight out of “The Andy Griffith Show.” A truck full of liquefied eggs went over hard on the side of an Upstate highway yesterday as it made its way to the Duke’s Mayonnaise plant in Mauldin, spilling a reported 47,000 pounds of runny yolk on the side of the road.

Crews reportedly spent all-day Tuesday cleaning up the mess, which seemed to have been confined to the ditch alongside I-85 South in Spartanburg County. The truck’s driver, who swerved to avoid traffic, was reportedly cited for driving too fast for conditions.

“This was definitely a first for us,” Spartanburg Emergency Management Coordinator Doug Bryson told the Spartanburg Herald-Journal. “We scrambled to respond to that one.”

The eggcident shouldn’t set Duke’s back too much though. The Upstate factory handles an estimated 70,000 pounds of the stuff a day, the New York Times‘ Kim Severson reported from Mauldin last month. Duke’s, unlike its rival Hellman’s, uses only egg yolks in its Southern standard.

If you’ve ever wanted a master class in how to clean up a cracked egg truck, check out the county’s Facebook album for more than two-dozen photos of the hard-boiled crews at work.


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