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

  • Bitumen technology: counting carbon emissions from road works
    March 13, 2024
    This month we look at accurate carbon counting, a biobinder that does not come at a premium and efforts to increase recycled content - Kristina Smith reports
  • How retroreflection can assist in improving traffic safety
    April 29, 2015
    Better road markings can boost safety for road users. There is currently a strong focus on traffic safety in Europe with a number of programmes intended to reduce the overall number of crashes on roads and cut the statistics for injuries and fatalities. In the first EU programme implemented between 2001 and 2010, the goal was to halve the number of people killed in road crashes. Most EU countries showed significant improvement over the decade and a few countries met or even exceeded this target of 50% r
  • US pedestrian deaths fall but still high
    November 26, 2024
    According to analysis from the Governors Highway Safety Association - GHSA – annual US pedestrian traffic deaths fell for first time since the pandemic, but are still above the pre-pandemic level.
  • Stupid thieves
    June 27, 2016
    A motorcyclist in the UK city of Newcastle came close to having his bike stolen by persistent and rather stupid thieves. The biker had just entered a main road from a roundabout when he spotted a bicycle lying in the middle of the roadway. Realising it posed a hazard to traffic on the busy road, he pulled to a halt and went back to remove the abandoned bicycle. Meanwhile a youth ran up to his motorcycle, which still had the key in the ignition, and began wheeling it away. The motorcyclist spotted what was h