Thousands Of Pennies Pour On Roadway In Tractor Trailer Accident

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Pennies rained down on a major Delaware roadway this morning, forcing the road to be shutdown for several hours.

Delaware State Police say a tractor-trailer overturned on northbound I-95 near the I-295 split around 2 a.m., in the process spilling thousands of blank pennies onto the highway. Authorities say Stefan Marinkovic, 25, of Chicago was driving that tractor-trailer.

Police say their investigation shows that for an unknown reason, Marinkovic veered and struck an attenuator and smashed into a concrete barrier before overturning and catching on fire.

Delaware's Dept. of Transportation was finally able to reopen the left lane of the highway around 10:30, after having the entire roadway shut down for about 8-hours while crews worked to clean up the pennies, fuel and debris from the crash.

All lanes have since reopened.

Police say Marinkovic what properly restrained in the vehicle and was able to free himself from the tractor-trailer after the crash. He was taken to Christiana Hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

The blank pennies were on their way to the Philadelphia Mint and are currently being stored until they can resume their trip to the mint.