30,000 Pounds of Bananas
"30,000 Pounds Of Bananas," sometimes spelled "Thirty Thousand Pounds Of Bananas," is a folk rock song by Harry Chapin from his 1974 album, Verities & Balderdash. The song became more popular in its live extended recording from Chapin's 1976 concert album, Greatest Stories Live that started the phrase "Harry, it sucks." The song is based on an actual truck accident that occurred in Scranton, Pennsylvania, in 1965.
On March 18, 1965, a 35-year-old truck driver, Eugene P. Sesky, was on his way to deliver a load of bananas to Scranton, Pennsylvania. Sesky, an employee of Fred Carpentier—operator of a small truck line in Scranton—was returning from the boat piers at Weehawken, New Jersey, where he had picked up his load. The load was destined for the locations in the "wholesale block" on the western edge of Lackawanna Avenue in Scranton—either the local A&P Warehouse or to Halem Hazzouri Bananas, the premier banana seller in the area at the time. Sesky was driving a 1950s Brockway diesel truck tractor with a 35 ft (11 m) semi-trailer and was headed down Rt. 307 when he suddenly lost control. That section of Rt. 307 contains a "two-mile" descent extending from Lake Scranton to the bottom of Moosic Street that includes a drop in elevation of more than 500 ft (150 m) in less than 1.5 mi (2.4 km). Sesky was unable to control the truck's speed down the hill due to a mechanical failure, variously attributed to the truck's brake system or its clutch. As a result, the truck cruised into Scranton at approximately 90 mph (140 km/h), sideswiping a number of cars before it crashed into a house at the southwest corner of Moosic St and S. Irving Ave (41°24′00″N 75°39′18″W / 41.4000°N 75.6550°WCoordinates: 41°24′00″N 75°39′18″W / 41.4000°N 75.6550°W), close to the bottom of the hill. Witnesses reported that Sesky did everything possible to avoid pedestrians and other motorists, including climbing out onto the truck's running board to try to warn people, and some have suggested that he may have deliberately flipped the truck over to avoid striking either bystanders or an automotive service station on Moosic Street that could have exploded in flames, causing a greater loss of life. Sesky was thrown from the truck and killed and bananas were spilled and strewn when the rig came to rest; 15 others were injured but only Sesky died. The road was closed for cleanup as Johnson's Towing Company helped out in the recovery. Trucks over 21,000 lb (9.5 t) are no longer allowed to travel that route (they must use Interstate 380 via Dunmore.)
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