Denmark: Potato spillages cause travel havoc and 'risk to life' on key Storebaelt bridge

Travel havoc descended on a key bridge which connects two Danish islands on Thursday after truck loads of potatoes were spilled.

Danish police said it had detained a 57-year-old truck driver following the incident on suspicion of causing reckless endangerment to life.

A first spill was reported on the westbound side of the Storebaelt bridge on Thursday morning, according to a police spokesman. A similar incident happened on the eastbound side a short time later.

The bridge connects the island where the capital, Copenhagen, is located to the rest of Denmark.

"It looks weird," the spokesman said. "We are working on two hypotheses: it is either an accident or it is something that has been done deliberately."

Drivers were urged by police to drive slowly after road surfaces on the bridge became slippery.

The Danish Road Directorate said that lines of vehicles were reported on either side of the bridge and tunnel link between the islands of Funen and Zealand.

A third incident of potatoes on the road was reported near the town of Kolding on the Jutland peninsula.

Danish public broadcaster DR noted that the potato spills occurred on the same day as the Danish parliament passed a law to tax diesel trucks transporting heavy loads.

The new measure has drawn protests from truck drivers, who in recent weeks have peacefully blocked highways and main roads throughout the country.

Truck drivers have claimed the tax will make their livelihoods unsustainable.

But a majority in the Danish parliament have argued it is vital to introduce the legislation as the continued use of gas and diesel-fueled trucks is environmentally unsustainable.

Torben Dyhl Hjorth, a spokesman for the protesting truckers, said on Facebook that they "strongly distance themselves from today's 'stunts'."

He added that they plan to protest at a later stage which "can be felt but without risk to people's lives and well-being".

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