Beer Spill Shuts Down Route 78 - WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-

Swanton, Vermont - June 22, 2009

Route 78 in Swanton was closed for hours Monday due to a beer spill.

Police say a truck hauling 40,000 pounds of beer went off the road Monday morning, rolled over and landed in a swamp on the wildlife refuge. The truck brought some power lines down with it. Customers in West Swanton and Alburgh lost power for a while. Utility crews had to fix the power lines before the truck could be removed.

"The truck is to have to be offloaded before we even attempt to pull it out of the ditch," explained Assistant Chief Travis Greeno of the Swanton Fire Dept. "So it's going to be a long day. Route 78 will have to be shutdown once they start trying to get the truck out of the ditch, so it's going, it will be a long afternoon... it'll be well into the afternoon before this truck comes out of here."

Route 78 was closed for several hours but has since reopened.

The truck driver was wearing a seat belt and was not hurt. It is still unclear why he went off the road.

No beer or fuel leaked into the swamp.