Money rains down on New Jersey road - and other drivers cause chaos in the rush to pick up cash

Now that’s an early Christmas present.

It rained money on commuters in New Jersey as dollar bills fell from the sky on a main road in the new US state.

Dollar bills of different denominations floated through the air between the snow in East Rutherford, near New York, after what appeared to be a traffic accident between a car and an armoured Brink’s vehicle carrying the money.

Other drivers got out of their cars to scoop up the cash as it fell on the 12-lane highway.

A video posted on Twitter at roughly 8:30am local time showed dozens of drivers risking their lives to leave their cars and pick up the cash.

In the commotion – as people rushed to pick up the money – there were a number of other related crashes, police reported.

Amid the astonishing scenes, the driver of the Brink’s van was spotted running across the lanes trying to collect cash.

One eye-witness, Betsy Richards told USA Today: ‘People started stopping and people were jumping out of cars grabbing cash.’

She said that some of the bills picked up were $1, $5 and even $100.

‘People were saying he’s definitely going to get fired,’ added Richards. ‘It’s Christmas for some and the loss of a job for another.’

On the video, bus passengers can be heard laughing, and one exclaimed: ‘This is super dangerous, everyone’s just out of their car picking up money.’

It is not clear how much money spilled into the road but local media reported the incident had caused multiple accidents.

One commuter, who preferred to remain anonymous, told the Press Association: ‘Commuters from both sides of Route 3 had abandoned their cars to run around collecting cash.

“Cars would be driving around people crouched over picking up cash.

“Even people on the bus were jokingly asking to be let out.”

East Rutherford Police and Brinks did not respond to requests for comment.

Others were less impressed though and said those picking up the money were guilty of stealing and should hand the money back to the driver.