Police officers examine bonitos scattered on the Hanwa Expressway in Mihara Ward, Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, on July 4, 2019. (Mainichi/Yusuke Komatsu)

SAKAI, Osaka -- Bonitos were scattered on an expressway here on July 4 after falling from a truck, police said.

At around 9 a.m. on July 4, about 5 metric tons of frozen bonito fell from a 20-ton truck traveling along the Hanwa Expressway in Mihara Ward, Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, western Japan, police said.

The fish were scattered along about 500 meters of roadway. Subsequent work to recover them caused an about 6-kilometer traffic snarl in the area. Nobody was injured.

The truck was traveling along the middle of the three northbound lanes of the highway at the time of the accident, according to Osaka Prefectural Police and West Nippon Expressway Co.

The driver of the truck, who is in his 40s, was quoted as telling investigators, "I applied the emergency brakes to avoid hitting an object on the road and turned the steering wheel to the right, and that's when the cargo compartment's left door opened."

Bonitos apparently continued to tumble out of the truck as the driver brought it to a halt on the side strip.

The truck was carrying some 15 tons of bonito from Kagoshima Prefecture in Japan's southwest to Shizuoka Prefecture, central Japan.

(Japanese original by Kumiko Yasumoto, Osaka City News Department)