"Tidal wave of beer:" Semi hauling bottles and cans loses load, sprays trooper during traffic stop



LAS VEGAS -- Scary moments for a Nevada state trooper were captured by dash camera. He stopped a driver for speeding when the driver of a nearby truck lost control -- causing thousands of bottles of beer to spill on him and the highway!

Just as Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper Travis Smaka asked the driver he pulled over whether he had been drinking, it happened.

"I hear the sound that always gets the hairs on the back of my neck standing up -- of brakes locking up," Smaka said.

A truck hauling beer, barreling down the highway, lost its load!

Smaka and those inside the car he pulled over were pelted with beer bottles and cans.

"Semi truck full of beer just...there's beer over all the travel lanes!" Smaka says in the video.

"Well over 1,000 pounds of bottles of beer shattering and a tidal wave of beer coming at me," Smaka said.

They dodged the load, but thankfully, they didn't have to dodge the truck itself.

"When you watch the video, it is a little amusing, but at the same time, sends a serious reminder of what happens on the freeway when people do cut in front of semis," Trooper Jason Buratczuk said.

That's why troopers in Nevada are on the lookout for drivers behaving badly -- even riding shotgun in big rigs, looking for things like...

"Tailgating, unsafe lane changes," Buratczuk said.

Drivers should keep in mind, an 18-wheeler is about 80,000 pounds rolling down the road.

"They're so heavy. They're so large. They take so long to stop,"  Buratczuk said.

As for the driver whom Smaka stopped in the first place, the trooper let him go without a ticket.