Dead animal parts cause backup on I-5
Aug 2, 2013, 8:39 AM | Updated: 9:20 am
(Image courtesy Washington State Patrol trooper Guy Gill)
The Washington State Patrol says a rendering truck that spilled dead animal parts across two lanes of northbound Interstate 5 created a seven-mile traffic backup Thursday evening.
Trooper Guy Gill says the truck driver stopped quickly to avoid slow-moving traffic in front of him as he was passing Joint Base Lewis-McChord.
What Gill delicately described as “the cargo” spilled over the sides of the open container.
“Here’s a picture of the debris we’re dealing with,” Gill tweeted. “Not one of the glamorous parts of our job that’s for sure!!”
A front-end loader was brought in to clean up and the lanes reopened shortly before 9 p.m.
Gill tweeted from the scene, “I know this doesn’t look good but trust me, it smells even worse!”
The driver was cited for failure to secure his load.
This apparently isn’t the first of this kind of incident. Gill says the same thing happened in the same area in late June when a rendering truck braked quickly and its load “just sloshed over.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.