Dough! A truck leaking a lot of it is stranded on northbound I-5

With troopers busy enforcing Washington’s new distracted driving law, which bans the use of hand-held devices, none could have expected a distraction like this: bread dough, leaking on the freeway.

Washington State Patrol spokeswoman Brooke Bova said she responded to a call just before 3 p.m. Monday about a large truck heading northbound on Interstate 5 with a “foam-like substance” oozing out of its back door hatch.

“You can’t make this stuff up,” Bova said.

The truck started its journey in north Lewis County, heading toward its destination on Portland Avenue in Tacoma, where the driver has a company that recycles bakery waste to produce animal feed. Calls about the leaking dough started coming in before the truck entered Tumwater.

Traffic picked up near the main gate at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, and when it started moving again, the driver noticed the dough dropping onto the freeway. He pulled over on the shoulder at South 56th Street in Tacoma.

“He said that (the dough) was filled to the level it’s supposed to be,” Bova said. “He said it’s probably the amount of yeast and heat that is making it rise.”

The truck was not impeding traffic when Bova arrived, and was not considered a hazard, though she said it’s one of the weirder calls she’s responded to.

“It’s just an odd thing,” she said.

Another truck was on its way to assist the driver in transporting the dough just after 4 p.m.

This story was originally published July 24, 2017 at 4:51 PM with the headline "Dough! A truck leaking a lot of it is stranded on northbound I-5."