A tractor-trailer carrying 4,500 chickens was in a single-vehicle crash on the Malahat early Friday morning, sending birds onto the highway.
“Chickens were spread out over the roadway. Some dead. Some alive. Quite a mess to clean up,” Shawnigan Lake RCMP Cpl. Gregg Strom said.
Traffic was rerouted while the crash scene was cleaned up, with detours in both directions.
The crash occurred shortly about 3:11 a.m. near Split Rock lookout. The highway opened six hours later.
The driver received what are believed to be minor injuries, Strom said. He was checked out at a hospital.
Commercial vehicle safety enforcement investigators went to the scene. The cause of the crash is under investigation.
RCMP, paramedics, the Malahat Fire Department, and Emcon Services Inc., which is responsible for maintaining that stretch of the highway, went to the scene, as did the company owning the chickens. The company’s name was not released.
The company staff captured the chickens and removed the dead birds, Strom said. He could not say how many were alive and how many died as a result of the crash.
