Skip to main content

Sheep might fly

Motorists on a major highway in Australia were delayed recently by large numbers of sheep falling into the roadway. The incident occurred near the town of Geelong when a livestock truck overturned at a highway slip road. A steady stream of the unfortunate animals then fell onto the busy Princes Highway directly below, impacting onto two vehicles in the process and halting traffic for a number of hours. The truck was carrying several hundred animals and large numbers were killed or injured as they fell onto
October 9, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
Motorists on a major highway in Australia were delayed recently by large numbers of sheep falling into the roadway. The incident occurred near the town of Geelong when a livestock truck overturned at a highway slip road. A steady stream of the unfortunate animals then fell onto the busy Princes Highway directly below, impacting onto two vehicles in the process and halting traffic for a number of hours. The truck was carrying several hundred animals and large numbers were killed or injured as they fell onto the roadway. Luckily, none of the human vehicle occupants were injured in the incident. The highway had to be closed temporarily to allow the roadway to be cleared of dead and dying animals and for any unharmed sheep to be herded away.

Meanwhile in Russia, a driver was forced to halt his car when sheep began circling the vehicle and preventing it from further motion. The animals chased each other round the vehicle and were undeterred in this action, despite the man’s revving of the engine and his curses. The incident was captured on a 22 second video clip that was widely viewed on the internet. The animals later declined to comment on their protest.

Related Content

  • Safety barriers deliver valuable road user protection
    February 14, 2012
    Safety barriers provide an invaluable service for all road users, Mike Woof reports The safety barrier market is a key one for the highway sector, with systems providing valuable protection for all categories of road users. The importance of passive protective devices such as safety barriers can often be overlooked by the road user but is well-understood by highway designers. Redirecting an errant vehicle back into the roadway and preventing it from crossing into traffic flowing in the other direction or fr
  • Hertfordshire’s impressive Integrated Transport Control Centre
    September 26, 2013
    The road network of the southern English county of Hertfordshire, near London, is one of the busiest in the country, with an estimated 4.5 million journeys being made on the network every day. Combine this with the 7,783 reported incidents on Hertfordshire’s roads in 2012 and it’s easy to see how the network becomes congested. This is where the Hertfordshire Integrated Transport Control Centre (ITCC) comes in. From this facility in Hertford, officers from Hertfordshire County Council and their highways c
  • Austria's new tunnel meets safety regulations
    July 13, 2012
    New safety regulations and high traffic volumes require new tunnel construction all across Europe. Mike Woof reports Anew highway tunnel now being built in Austria will boost traffic volumes and safety standards on a key European route. The existing Pfänder Tunnel lies close to Austria's borders with Germany and Switzerland and carries a heavy traffic volume, so a new parallel tunnel is under construction to help spread this load, increasing capacity as well as safety. Stringent tunnel safety standards have
  • Key expressway route through Hunter Valley
    November 11, 2013
    Australia’s Hunter Valley will benefit from a new high speed expressway, which is currently under construction - Simon Gould reports Located two hours north of Sydney, the Hunter Valley region in New South Wales is one of Australia’s largest producers of coal and wine. With international demand, particularly from Asia, for both continuing to increase, a significant upgrade of infrastructure was required between the region and the port of Newcastle, the world’s largest coal export port. However the strict en