A semi-truck which had been transporting millions of honeybees had an overturn on a highway north of Seattle early on Friday, knocking over hives and sending beekeepers rushing to try saving as many of these insects as possible.
At around 3:30 the truck had merged into Interstate, when it leaned on its side dumping a load of 448 hives which was about 13.7 million bees, on the highway, according to Trooper Travis Shearer, Washington State Patrol. The driver of the semi-truck, a 36-year-old man was not hurt in the accident.
Bellville Honey and Beekeeping Supply of Burlington, the owner of the insects had sent beekeepers for recovering as many bees as possible, clothed in their protective suits while trying to save the bees.
As the sun rose and the weather started to warm up, the bees started becoming more active and the firefighters had to douse the insects with foam on some of the boxes, killing off the bees for safety purposes.
Several hours following the accident, many of the hives were still along the highway. A front-loader started to scoop them up and putting them on a dump truck, according to Shearer. A majority of the hives had been crushed.
“I’m sure they’ll take that somewhere and try to save as many as they can, but they can do that someplace safer, away from the I-5 corridor,” he said.
These bees were on their way to be transported from Sunnyside, in central Washington, to a blueberry farm in Lynden, a city close to the Canadian border around 100 miles north of Seattle.
The first responders and reporters all were swatting the bees away as they proceeded with their work.
Shearer said, “I think everybody there got stung.”
A video compilation of the on-going situation of reporters swatting away the bees as he reported on the accident had been posted by Seattle television station KIRO.
Shearer has urged drivers to keep their windows up and to “#beesafe when traveling through that area,” according to his Tweet.
The beekeeping company has refused to respond to queries related to the accident when reached on the phone.
