Not a good day to expose your wiener …
The vehicle used by Oscar Mayer to promote its popular wiener has been involved in a single vehicle accident in Enola, Pennsylvania on Sunday, February 15. The vehicle, commonly known as the “Wienermobile,” is shaped like a large bun with a wiener, mounted on a vehicle frame and completely street-legal. There are several of them in the fleet and they travel all over the country on promotional tours to interact with customers and fans.
The patch of ice under the Wienermobile on that slick Pennsylvania road caused the vehicle to careen off the road and have a forced interaction with a pole. The meeting was not made on friendly terms, and unfortunately the Wienermobile suffered more damage than the tall, muscular pole. The largest traffic snarl wasn’t caused by the accident though – it was the number of people slowing down on the roadway to rubberneck.
It has been determined by East Pennsboro Township police that icy road conditions and high winds contributed greatly to cause the driver of the Wienermobile to lose control of the vehicle. The two female occupants were not injured, but the Wienermobile suffered significant damage to the windshield and the ‘bun’ portion of the body of the vehicle.
Other accidents involving Wienermobiles since 2007
“In June 2007, a Wienermobile was stopped in Arizona by a police office after it was slowing traffic and appeared to have a stolen license plate. Further, there was a question whether the vehicle was even street legal according to strict Arizona motor vehicle laws. Arizona has laws where vehicles have to certified as being safe for use. At first a clerical error determined the “YUMMY” license plate to be stolen from Wisconsin, and the Wienermobile was towed and impounded by the police. Later it was released after it was determined that a clerical error indicated the plate was stolen only if it was not on a Wienermobile vehicle.”
In August 2007, an illegally parked Wienermobile in a no parking zone and?was ticketed in Chicago. Again in Pennsylvania, on February 11, 2008, while driving on icy roads near Mansfield, a Wienermobile slid off the road and suffered minor damage.
Of all the incidents involving Wienermobiles, the most talked about one is probably the report from Wisconsin on July 17, 2009.
“The young driver pulled on to a dead end street, and mistakingly put her foot on the gas when she was attempting to brake, crashing the Wienermobile into a Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin home, causing structural damage such as destroying?[the] deck and causing foundation damage to the property.”
When looking at the history of accidents involving Wienermobiles, one must wonder what screening process is used by Oscar Mayer to select the individuals tasked with driving these large vehicles to promotional events. The driver almost always seems to be a ‘22 year old female‘ whether the accident occurred in 2007 or in 2015. It would seem that Oscar Mayer, rather than hiring drivers with experience handling larger vehicles (the Wienermobile, in its various model years, averages 27 feet in length and a height of around 9 feet) is hiring drivers for?aesthetic reasons over practicality and safety.
