DEAD CHICKENS' REVENGE!!!!!!!
20-mile long chicken fat spill ties up U.S. 13
By CINDY CLAYTON, The Virginian-Pilot
© November 27, 2007 | Last updated 9:42 AM Nov. 27
ACCOMAC
A Perdue truck spilled chicken fat along a 20-mile stretch of U.S. 13 this morning causing several crashes and a big, smelly mess.
As far as Virginia State Police can tell, the spill started about 6 a.m. just north of Accomac and ended when the driver of the truck stopped at the scales at New Church, said Sgt. Joe Bunting of the state police.
Employees at the scales noticed the slippery, smelly substance leaking from the truck and notified the driver, Bunting said.
Virginia Department of Transportation crews are sanding the road and had made several passes by 9 a.m., Bunting said.
"The Perdue people have remediation teams being mustered," Bunting said. "With each coat of sand, it's getting better and better, but it's going to take many coats of sand."
"It smells bad," Bunting said, adding that the cleanup effort could take most of the day.
A valve on the truck apparently was loose when the driver left the plant this morning, Bunting said.
"There was a window of time there when this truck is dropping his load and these people, they put their brakes on and it's like black ice," Bunting said.
One car hit a utility pole and the driver had to be taken to a hospital, Bunting said. At least three other vehicles crashed, but no one involved suffered life-threatening injuries. Other drivers probably skidded or went spinning on the slippery fat, then went on their way, he added.
The driver, who was headed to Maryland, was cited for failing to properly secure his load, Bunting said. After closing the valve on the truck while it was at the scales, he was allowed to leave.
"Had he not been intercepted at the scales, it would have been a bigger mystery," Bunting said.
Many of the drivers who slipped or skidded probably didn't realize what the substance was, Bunting said.
"Thank heavens, you know, the time of day that it was, that we were able to get on top of it," Bunting said. "VDOT got right out of here on top of it. Otherwise, it probably would have been a whole lot worse."