Chickens Escape, Cross Road After I-5 Crash

OLYMPIA, WA - A semi-truck carrying hundreds of live chickens crashed along Interstate-5 in Olympia Monday morning, spilling the frantic animals across the highway and forcing the closure of five lanes heading both north and south near Highway 101.

According to Washington State Police Trooper Johnna Batiste, the semi was traveling north when around 4 a.m. Feb. 11 the driver lost control near Highway 101 and veered into the Jersey barrier, where it became stuck. Straddling the median, the semi blocked three southbound lanes and two northbound lanes after the crash.

The driver was uninjured in the single-vehicle crash, Batiste said, but a large number of the now-free range chickens escaped their captivity and made an ever bigger mess of the highway for several hours.

Some the surviving fowl cargo actually crossed the road and made it to freedom, Batiste said. For the remaining hysterical hens, multiple WSP troopers spent hours wrangling the animals before taking them to a local farm.

I-5 was completely reopened around 9 a.m., Washington Transportation officials tweeted.

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Image via Washington State Patrol