CHESTER COUNTY, S.C.
It was more than an hour before daylight when a fully-loaded tractor trailer went out of control on Interstate 77 in Chester County.
The driver, Leanardo Perez, 36, of Hialeah, Florida, swerved into the median on the dark highway and his big rig flipped on its side, slamming into the grassy median.
Perez wasn't hurt, but his load of 40 tons of fresh fruits and vegetables wouldn't survive for long. The crash ripped open the side of the trailer, making it impossible to right it without dropping food all over the place.
The truck was coming from Miami, and headed to Charlotte. The shipping company agreed to give the food away, rather than foot the bill to get another truck there fast enough to save the load. Troopers quickly got in touch with local charities, and said, "Come and get it."
Reverend Ronal King of Rock Hill runs a ministry called Feed the Hungry and that's just what he intends to do.
"God is not crazy is all I can tell you. He knows what's needed before we even ask," King said. "He provided manna from heaven in the morning, and this is our manna. Amen."
For hours volunteers used trucks and even bulldozers to take hundreds of boxes and load them up.
Troopers directed curious drivers around what looked more like a roadside farmer's market than a crash site.
Volunteer firefighters from Richburg were first on the scene when the crash was called in to 911. Some diesel fuel spilled and caused a brief Haz-Mat situation, but they never expected the biggest part of their day would be spent carrying boxes of fruit.
Boxes marked "Miami" contained many varieties of fresh food, including apples, bananas, oranges, mangos, avocadoes, coconuts, ginger root, parsley, potatoes and dozens of others.
"I just hate to see food wasted and this is good food," said Richburg Fire Chief John Agee.
Firefighters took truckloads back to their station to distribute across Chester County.
Some of it went to inmates at the county jail, other boxes went to charities across Rock Hill and homeless shelters in Charlotte.
"People will be able to come and get it to keep it all from being wasted," Agee said.
Perez was charged with driving too fast for conditions. Troopers are still investigating how he lost control of the tractor trailer.
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