J.D. Gallop

FLORIDA TODAY

Two trucks hauling a couch potato's dream of beer and chips collided in an accident that shut down southbound lanes on Interstate 95 for nearly four hours and sent snack food and drinks spilling out on the highway.

The drivers of the semitrailer and the box truck were not seriously injured. A clean-up crew was called in to help remove the spilled beer and snack chips.

"We had a front-end loader come out and scoop all of the beer and chips and pushed them to the right shoulder. We have two of the three lanes open now," said Kim Montes, spokeswoman for the Florida Highway Patrol. "All of the products will be thrown away. they can't take the risk of them having some type of internal damage. They're still trying to get the chips and beer out of there," she added.

Troopers reopened the southbound lanes of Interstate 95 near the Pineda exit about 7:30 a.m. today. All of the blocked lanes have reopened with the exception of the far right lane.

Investigators said the crash happened about 3:19 a.m. in the southbound lanes of the highway, just south of the Pineda exit.

Troopers said that the semi-tractor trailer carrying Busch Beer was travelling southbound in the right lane when the driver attempted to pull into the center lane but swerved back to avoid another vehicle.

The semi then slammed into the back of a Frito Lay truck that had stopped on the right shoulder for an unknown reason, investigators said. The crash sent beer and chips spilling out onto the roadway. "The driver of the Frito Lay truck was having issues with his vehicle," Montes said.

The driver of the semi, Roverto Ferrer Rodriguez, 54, of Miami, was ticketed for failing to maintain a single lane, investigators reported. The driver of the Frito Lay truck, Zachary Basinger, 29, of Melbourne, was not charged.