The 590 Vehicle Traffic Jam That Everyone Loved

Spoiler Alert: Truck drivers normally hate congestion, but none of the drivers in the 590-truck traffic jam on Mother’s Day in Lancaster, Pa., seemed to mind.

The annual Make-A-Wish Mother’s Day Truck Convoy set an unofficial world record for the world’s longest truck convoy. Validation by the Guinness Book of World Records will take a while, but the event seems to have shattered the previous official record of 416 trucks, set in the Netherlands, and is a high for the Make-A-Wish event, which has been held for 27 years.

More importantly, the convoy is estimated to have raised at least $350,000 for Make-A-Wish Philadelphia, North Delaware and Susquehanna Valley, a charity that grants wishes to children with life-threatening medical conditions.

The event began with one little boy’s wish to ride in a truck and talk to his sister on CB radio and, thanks to the generosity of truckers, has grown into an all-day family celebration that raises hundreds of thousands of dollars.

An estimated 6,000 to 7,000 people enjoyed a carnival before the trucks began to roll out and spectators lined the 26-mile loop in central Pennsylvania, cheering for the truckers, who answered with blasts of their horns. More than 120 Make-A-Wish children rode in trucks, which took nearly two hours to exit the industrial parking lot where they queued up.

Category: General Update