Oscar Mayer Wienermobile Had a Rough Monday

No injuries after famous giant hot dog crashes into car, overturns on Illinois highway
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 23, 2024 8:12 AM CDT
Famous Giant Hot Dog Rolls Over on Illinois Highway
The Oscar Mayer Wienermobile sits outside Oscar Mayer headquarters on Oct. 27, 2014, in Madison, Wisconsin.   (MP King/Wisconsin State Journal via AP, File)

It's not exactly a car that crashed this week on an Illinois highway: The Chicago Tribune reports that an Oscar Mayer Wienermobile—one of the company's 23-foot-long nomadic vehicles shaped like a giant hot dog—rolled over a little past 11am local time on Monday after it hit a Hyundai sedan on the Tri-State Tollway while heading north near Oak Brook, lost control, and overcorrected right onto its side.

There were no reported injuries, though the highway was shut down for more than an hour while authorities investigated. Police didn't say if speeding or drug or alcohol use was involved, per USA Today, which features some images from the crash. "We're grateful that everybody involved is safe and there were no injuries," an Oscar Mayer rep says in a statement, per the Chicago Sun-Times. The company adds it's offering "ongoing support for our Hotdoggers," referencing the workers who drive the Wienermobile. "Safety on the road is top priority for us."

Oscar Mayer's current fleet of six Wienermobiles has been traversing the nation as brand ambassadors since 1988, per USA Today, though the original Weinermobile was officially rolled out in 1936. Each vehicle weighs "as much as 140,050 hot dogs, has mustard and ketchup seats inside, a hot dog-shaped dashboard, a removable bun-roof, a ketchup walkway, and an official Wiener Jingle horn." It's not clear how long this particular Wienermobile will be out of commission, but according to the Wienermobile tracker site, the accident doesn't seem to have disrupted most of the fleet's schedule. (More Wienermobile stories.)

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