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Trailer flips, killing 17 steer on I-80
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Hubbard Township police and fire and the Ohio State Highway Patrol work to clear cattle carcasses and a cattle trailer from eastbound Interstate 80 just east of the Bell Wick Road overpass. The driver lost control of the trailer early Monday after, he told police, the cows shifted weight in the back of the truck. There were approximately 24 steers in the trailer, officials said.
Hubbard
Hubbard Township Police and the Ohio State Highway Patrol spent most of Monday clearing and cleaning Interstate 80 after a trailer carrying 25 beef cattle flipped just east of the Bell Wick Road overpass, killing all but eight of them.
According to the highway patrol, the single-truck accident happened at 4:18 a.m. near the 233 mile marker in the eastbound lane.
The road was closed to traffic until 6:44 a.m., and left an eastbound portion of I-80 down to one lane until well into the afternoon. Traffic was backed up past the Belmont Avenue exit.
Bill Cameron, a self- described traveler from New Jersey, sat in traffic in his pickup truck while towing a silver Streamline camper trailer returning home from a cross-country road trip.
Along his trip, Cameron said he took in many odd sights, but what he saw Monday morning on the return trip home along I-80 may be the oddest of them all. While slowly driving, he caught a glimpse of one of the dead steer lying on the grassy median.
“I’ve never seen anything like that,” he said while sitting at the Emerald Diner located on U.S. Route 62 just south of I-80. “I did a double-take.”
The cow disappeared from his view but as traffic crept, several more bovine carcasses strewn along the grass and concrete came into view.
Finally he saw the source: the overturned truck.
The driver of the truck, Jimmy R. King, 42, of Botkins, Ohio, reportedly had minor injuries.
The driver reported to state police that the animals shifted in the back of the trailer, causing him to lose control of the truck, said Sgt. Randy Skaggs, of the Ohio State Highway Patrol.
The trailer swayed left first, and when the driver tried turning right, the trailer tipped, blocking both lanes.
The highway patrol charged the driver with failure to maintain and said there would be no further investigation, Skaggs said.
He didn’t know how many cattle died.
The surviving cattle were placed on another trailer and taken from the scene.
As gruesome as the accident scene was, Cameron was still able to take it lightly.
“Hey, at least you’ve got some free beef,” Cameron said to one of the diner’s waitresses.