Roads close after milk tanker tips, again, in Greater Grand Rapids

A tanker truck transporting milk across the Greater Grand Rapids area tipped over on Wilson Avenue in Walker, Michigan around 12:30 p.m. on Feb. 24. The contents of the truck spilled across the roadway, and drivers were asked to find an alternative route. The Walker Police Department reported the initial crash, and reopened the intersection of Wilson Avenue and Remembrance Avenue around 3 p.m.

This was not the only time a truck hauling milk has gotten into an accident in the Greater Grand Rapids area. A similar accident occurred on US-131, near downtown Grand Rapids on Nov. 24, 2023. A semi-truck got into an accident, causing the vehicle to roll and milk to spill across the interstate.

According to MLive, the spill on Nov. 24 reduced traffic to one lane moving northbound. The section of highway impacted by the spill was the “S-Curve” near downtown Grand Rapids’ Wealthy Street.

Accidents involving spilled milk pose a particular problem in terms of clean up and road maintenance. Because of the contents of milk, particularly around bodies of water, simply washing the milk off the road is not an option.

“US-131 was shut down for hours, as state police expressed that milk can’t simply be washed off the roadway,” MLive reporter Micaheal Kransz writes. “According to troopers, milk can be toxic to fish in the water system.”

Apparently, hauling milk is a declining field for truck drivers across the United States. According to the Michigan Milk Producers Association (MMPA), there is a deficit of truck drivers that are able to haul milk because of the older generations of drivers retiring, undesirable working conditions and the specific licensing and equipment necessary to transport milk.

“With greater competition for resources and dairy needing niche drivers (tanker endorsement and milk samplers license) rate increases are likely, and lack of qualified drivers is a risk,” writes John Fritzler, MMPA Director of Logistics and Plant Production Planning. “Unfortunately, a growing trend pressuring the efficient flow of milk from farm to plant to consumer is the declining number of truck drivers and milk haulers across the country.”

Many truck drivers express stress and boredom on through long hours on the road drove them from the work field. It is unclear if either of these factors contributed to the milk tanker spills around the Grand Rapids area recently.

Maybe the spilled milk isn’t too upsetting for truck drivers, but the working conditions could be worth crying over.