
40,000 pounds of chicken feathers were the cause of major backups in Washington Wednesday morning after the truck driver fell says he fell asleep and crashed, spilling the cargo across the interstate.
The accident happened on Wednesday, May 23rd at approximately 3:20 a.m. in Federal Way, Washington.
According to KREM 2 News, the unnamed truck driver was hauling feathers from Foster Farms to Mount Vernon along northbound Interstate 5 at South 320th Street when he says he fell asleep at the wheel, causing him to strike a guardrail before overcorrecting and flipping the tractor trailer.
And now the feather scooping operation begins! pic.twitter.com/b8c3YI8Ub5
— WSDOT Traffic (@wsdot_traffic) May 23, 2018
Luckily, the truck driver was not injured in the crash, but the northbound lanes of I-5 were shut down for around four hours as crews worked to clear the wet feathers from the roadway and three tow trucks worked to right the overturned big rig.
At one point, backups from the cleanup efforts stretched as far as seven miles, reaching into Tacoma, but the incident has since been cleared and traffic flow is back to normal.
The truck driver involved in the incident says that this wreck was the first accident he’s had in 27 years.