Semi Driver In Shredded Cheese Spill Was Drunk: Nashville Police

NASHVILLE, TN -- The driver of a semi-truck that overturned near downtown Nashville Thursday, spilling shredded cheese on the interstate, was also hauling a cooler of a beer and a BAC more than twice the legal limit, according to police.

The tractor-trailer driven by Wesley Femmer, 61, rolled over on the ramp between Interstate 24 East and Interstate 65 North just before 12:30 Thursday morning, sending shredded cheese into the roadway and shutting down the ramp for hours as HAZMAT crews cleaned up.

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The officer who stopped to helped Femmer said the driver told him he was going too fast to make the ramp. The officer also saw a cooler full of beer among the cheese debris, according to an arrest report.

Femmer, from Sterling, Ill., was taken to the hospital and "observed to be impaired," the officer wrote. He was given a blood-alcohol test which showed a BAC of .09. The legal limit for commercial drivers in Tennessee is .04.

Femmer is charged with DUI. The cheese is headed to the landfill.

Photo via Metro Nashville Police Department