Skip to main content

Who you gonna call?

Emergency services in the US state of Oregon recently faced a rather unusual challenge when they were called out to deal with the aftermath of a crash. A truck had overturned, spilling its load into the roadway and onto a number of other vehicles. Unfortunately the truck’s load happened to comprise several tonnes of live hagfish, which were being transported to Korea, where they are eaten as a delicacy.
October 18, 2017 Read time: 1 min

Emergency services in the US state of Oregon recently faced a rather unusual challenge when they were called out to deal with the aftermath of a crash. A truck had overturned, spilling its load into the roadway and onto a number of other vehicles. Unfortunately the truck’s load happened to comprise several tonnes of live hagfish, which were being transported to Korea, where they are eaten as a delicacy. Hagfish have no backbones and produce slime when under stress, which was certainly the case in this crash. The truck and several cars were damaged during the incident and also covered in slime, which emergency crews had to wash away before the road, the busy I-101 route, could be returned to normal traffic flow.

Related Content

  • How waste plastic and soybean oil are helping our roads last longer
    April 13, 2018
    A new super-modifier is born from waste plastic in Italy and a soybean-based rejuvenator from the US spreads from its home market. By Kristina Smith The two bitumen technologies featured this month come from almost opposing sources. One emerges from the human-created plastic waste plaguing our planet, the other from a plant. However, both technologies have been created with the same aims: to increase the life of roads, saving cost and ultimately reducing the impact of road building on the planet. A coll
  • Yotta and PiP IoT improve safety on Auckland motorways
    February 25, 2020
    In New Zealand, Auckland System Management is working with asset software provider Yotta and sensor manufacturer PiP IoT to manage motorway maintenance and repairs.
  • A virtual virtuous circle
    January 18, 2021
    Virtual sensors will allow a safer driving experience and reduce road maintenance costs. Tactile Mobility’s Eitan Grosbard talks to David Arminas
  • Road safety improvement for the US
    December 11, 2012
    The US is seeing improvements in road safety overall, with a drop in road crash statistics for 2011. The data for 2011 is encouraging and the US Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has released a new analysis indicating that highway deaths fell to 32,367 in 2011. This marked the lowest level of road related fatalities since 1949, 1.9% decrease from the previous year. Furthermore, this updated 2011 data show the historic downward trend in recent years continu