Trucker detained after potato spill on Danish bridge

A 57-year-old truck driver was detained Thursday after loadings of potatoes were found spilled on a key bridge linking two Danish islands. The driver was arrested after he was arrested on suspicion of causing dangerous endangerment to life.

A first spill on the westbound side of the Storebaelt bridge was reported at 6.35 a.m. Monday. ET Police spokesman Kenneth Taanquist said the incident happened Monday. The bridge connects the island where the capital, Copenhagen, is located to the rest of Denmark.

A similar incident happened on the eastbound side a short time later, Tanquist said.

It's weird, he said, because he thinks it looks weird. We're working on two hypotheses: it is either an accident or it's something that has been done deliberately. Motorists were told to drive slowly and the roads had become slippery, a police spokesman said. lines of vehicles were reported between the islands of Funen, where Odense, the third largest city in Denmark, is located and Zealand, where Copenhagen sits.

A third incident of potatoes on the road was reported near the village of Kolding on the Jutland peninsula. Kolding is near the Storebaelt bridge.

The Danish public broadcaster, DR, said the potato spills happened on the same day as the Danish parliament passed a law to tax diesel trucks transporting heavy loads.

They peacefully blocked highways and main roads throughout the nation in recent weeks, fearing that the tax will make their lives unsustainable. The continued use of gas and diesel-fueled trucks is environmentally unsustainable, according to a majority of Danish parliamentarians.

As of 2025, the drivers of gas and diesel-fueled vehicles over 3.5 tons 7-17 pounds will be taxed 1.3 kroner $0.19 per kilometer driven half a mile, Torben Dyhl Hjorth, a spokesman for the protesting truckers, said on Facebook that they strongly distance themselves from today's stunts.