Two separate bee trucks crashed just three days apart in Idaho, unleashing 22 million bees onto the highway.
The first crash occurred on State Highway 33 near Howe, Idaho on June 25. The Florida-based driver, Rolondo Aparicio, reported that he swerved to avoid a car and rolled his truck onto its side, spilling the beehives owned by KatieBee Honey out onto the ground. According to reports, the truck somehow righted itself after it tipped an continued 75 yards off of the road. Aparicio was not hurt by the accident but had to run to escape from the 20 million swarming bees freed by the crash. He suffered numerous bee stings.
After speaking with the owner of KatieBee Honey, it was decided that the bees could not be saved. Emergency crews sprayed them with a foam to kill them in order to protect other motorists.
The second crash took place last night near the Washington-Idaho border. A truck heading east on I-90 near Coeur d’Alene started swaying as it went up a hill, according to Idaho state police. The truck, hauling 400 bee hives, tipped over, spilling 2 million bees onto the highway. Many of the bees died in the crash, but those that didn’t swarmed. Authorities say that the stress of the crash and the warm temperatures made the bees more active than usual.
The truck driver was not hurt in the crash. Several beekeepers were on the scene to try to rescue as many bees as possible. Workers for Superior Towing and Recovery donned bee suits to flip the trailer back over, but they were unable to do so with some of the hives still inside. Crews were forced to spray foam to kill the remaining bees and take them to a landfill.
Sources:
KHQ
Fox 13
NY City News
Fox 40
KXLY