Five tons of bonito fish fell from a refrigerator truck and were scattered across an expressway in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, on Thursday morning, police said.
The frozen fish were dispersed over 500 meters of highway near the Miharaminami Interchange of the Hanwa Expressway linking Osaka and Wakayama prefectures, police said.
"I turned the wheel to avoid something left on the road. Then the (refrigerator) door opened," said the driver in his 40s, whose name is being withheld.
The truck was carrying 15 tons of bonito in total and traveling from Kagoshima Prefecture to Shizuoka Prefecture.
The accident caused a traffic jam that continued for six kilometers. No one was injured.
All the fish were removed from the expressway by 11 a.m., but the smell of fish lingered.
"I saw fish scattered on the road for the very first time. I was pretty surprised," said a 48-year-old truck driver from Takatsuki, Osaka.
