Western Distributing Transportation Corporation 18-wheeler rolls over, spilling cash

Officials said the truck involved in the accident was an 18-wheeler from the Colorado-based Western Distributing Transportation Corporation

A truck carrying cash for the US government rolled over on Tuesday morning in Texas, causing a scene that had onlookers sifting through dirt and a mayor comparing a city to a metal detecting hotspot.

Officials in Wise county said the two occupants of the vehicle, both of whom sustained non-life threatening injuries, were taken to hospital.

The truck, an 18-wheeler from the Colorado-based Western Distributing Transportation Corporation, was rolling over when it swerved, striking a dirt embankment and causing its load to spill, the county sheriff’s office said in a statement.

No other vehicle was involved in the accident, which occurred shortly after 5.30am on Tuesday morning, and two southbound lanes of US 287 were closed after the accident, remaining inaccessible until the evening and causing miles-long lines of traffic, according to the Wise County Messenger.

The truck was said to be carrying a sum of $800,000 in coins, a figure later confirmed by Alvord’s mayor, Caleb Caviness, in an interview with the New York Times.

Public safety officials at the scene of the accident in Texas. Photograph: Sheriff’s office/SW MOF INTEREST: A mint in the US is making a new coin and it's causing quite a stir

The county sheriff’s office said the two occupants of the truck, believed to be the driver and an armed guard from Western’s US Armored Company Services (USAC) subsidiary, were taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries. No other vehicle was involved.

Footage taken by CBS News Texas showed uniformed USAC employees sifting through dirt, gravel and plants at the side of the roadside to recover some of the coins, while others were collected with shovels and buckets.

The bulk of the money, according to Caviness, was being retrieved with heavy machinery.

“The funniest part to me was that they picked up the dimes using the vacuum trucks that are used to suck out sewage and water and stuff like that,” the mayor told the Times.

“We were joking around that the city of Alvor would be metal detecting.”

Texas department of safety troopers kept some curious spectators from the scene, although the Times reported than an expected horde of speculators, fired up by rumors circulating in Alvor that the coin spillage was $8m instead of $800,000, “never showed up”.

According to Western Distribution’s website, USAC has more than 40 armored units equipped to safeguard cargo in transit.

“We move cargo for all divisions of the government and were awarded [contracts] to move several of the government’s banks over the years,” wording on its website states.

“If it must be secure in transit, any amount, anywhere, USAC can make it happen! We would tell you more about what we can do, but it’s confidential!”