Photo of the accident that inspired the Harry Chapin song: 30,000 Pounds of Bananas. The accident occurred March 18, 1965. 33-year-old Eugene P. Sesky, an employee of Fred Carpentier, a small truck line was returning from the boat piers at Weehawken, New Jersey to deliver 15-tons of bananas to Scranton Pennsylvania.Harry Chapin’s “30,000 Pounds of Bananas” has finally found an oddly timely Tacoma echo. A semi carrying bananas caught fire on northbound I‑5 Friday morning, and the cleanup turned the freeway into a very real traffic jam. The News Tribune’s report doesn’t give the load’s weight, so we can’t say whether Tacoma matched the song’s full 30,000 pounds.
The fire began just after 6 a.m. near the north end of the Puyallup River Bridge, close to the Port of Tacoma Road work zone. The driver was uninjured and managed to disconnect the trailer from the truck. Authorities said a brake malfunction was believed to have caused the fire, though the exact cause was still unknown.
Tacoma firefighters stayed on scene to make sure the flames didn’t spread to the back of the truck. Meanwhile, dump trucks were brought in to move the bananas from the damaged trailer, with the city’s construction contractor helping with cleanup. The incident also backed up northbound traffic, with delays reaching eastbound SR 16 earlier in the morning.
No one was hurt, and there’s no report of anyone slipping on a banana peel. But the scene was close enough to Chapin’s famous tale to make Tacoma commuters do a double take.
The News Tribune has more on the crash and the cleanup. Find it here.
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