Strawberry “Jam” Jams Highway 17 Commute

It's the kind of traffic accident that would make you giggle a little, except people were seriously hurt.

For sure, drivers along the Summit would call it "the pits."

A crash on Highway 17 in Santa Cruz County shut down all lanes of the highway for a time Tueday morning so a helicopter could land and take one of the injured people away.

That happened at 9:54 a.m. One minute later Caltrans came in to clean up what had spilled -- hundreds of strawberries.

Hazardous? No.  Sticky?  You bet. 

A minivan and a Saturn sedan apparently collided south of Laurel Road, near the summit, the CHP reported. In all, two people were seriously hurt.  One was taken by ambulance to Valley Medical Center in San Jose, the other had to be airlifted.

It must have been a lot of berries because the CHP wasn't able to start reopening lanes until around 10:30 a.m.