Incident: Medical Documents Spilled On Highway in Alabama

From News Channel 10 in Rhode Island:

News Channel 10 - News - CVS Apologizes For Customers' Documents Spilled On Highway:

"CVS, based in Woonsocket, R.I., apologized to some customers Friday after a truck licensed by the company spilled documents with personal information on a highway in Birmingham, Ala.

CVS told News Channel 10 the incident in Alabama is an accidental situation due to a truck malfunction.

A portion of Interstate 65 in Birmingham was littered with medical documentation about CVS customers.

"We deeply regret the incident that occurred today (Friday) when a Waste Management truck that was traveling from one of our distribution centers broke open and spilled information about customers on the road,” said CVS corporate spokesman Todd Andrews, in an interview with the NBC station in Birmingham.

"What happened today (Friday) was that the information which travels from our pharmacies to our distribution center, which is then packaged and then brought to a secure landfill, was somehow relieved in transit either through a door being unsecured or somehow being damaged and opening."

After receiving calls that the documents were strewn all across the Interstate, Andrews said the issue was addressed by CVS immediately.

"We immediately took action and contacted Waste Management, which is the licensed hauler of this material,” said Andrews. “We are working with Waste Management now and their cleaning crews to secure all of this information."

CVS said they've asked the waste management company to do a full investigation into how the documents became unsecured and blew off the truck and were allowed to remain on the roadside, uncollected."

I would think this information should be shredded, rather than sent to a "secure landfill".