Washington state highway covered in 40,000 pounds of chicken feathers after semi overturns, creates 'fowl' mess
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A semi overturned in Washington state Wednesday, snarling the early morning commute. (Fox13)
Were commuters in Washington state clucking with disapproval this morning?
A semi overturned across an interstate early Wednesday, spilling “about 40,000 pounds of chicken feathers" across the road, Q13 reports.
The wreck happened at approximately 3:30 a.m., Washington State Patrol told the station.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The semi driver reportedly didn’t have any injuries, and claims he had fallen asleep at the wheel. Trooper Rick Johnson told Q13 the driver would receive a citation for negligent driving.
The feathers were reportedly being transported from Foster Farms.
“Apparently the load spilled 40,000 lbs of chicken feathers,” the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) tweeted.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Fowl way to start the day," one Twitter user replied.
"I would say good cluck cleaning that all up, but I can see that you scrambled to take care of it already," another joked.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The department later said in another message, “One of our traffic engineers did the math - 40,000 lbs of chicken feathers = ~18 million feathers (they still weigh the same as 40,000 lbs of bricks, however)."
It added, “With ~ 8,000 feathers on a chicken that's almost 2,300 chickens worth of feathers.”
The mess "ruffled some feathers" for commuters driving in from Tacoma, WSDOT said, estimating that the travel time from the city to Seattle was about 93 minutes at one point.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“All lanes were blocked at times as crews worked to remove the truck and scoop up the feathers. The freeway reopened about 7:30 a.m., but a backup stretched for miles," according to the Seattle Times.