An estimated 16 to 20 million honeybees swarmed a major highway after a truck carrying 460 hives overturned on an on-ramp. The driver reportedly did not have his truck loaded properly and he lost control when his cargo shifted while navigating the on-ramp. The truck rolled over onto the guardrail and hundreds of crates containing bee hives fell to the ground, releasing millions of swarming bees.
Police say the driver suffered a minor arm injury and that he and his two passengers suffered about 50-100 bee stings each. They were taken by ambulance to a local hospital for treatment.
For nearly an hour after the accident, the police were still unable to get any where near the truck because the bee swarms were so massive. This prompted police to call in three local beekeepers to assist. Rounding up all of the bees would have been a good choice but that may have taken days to accomplish. So, in order to remove the truck from the on-ramp in a timely manner, the beekeepers recommended that fire fighters at the scene use water from their fire hoses to disperse the swarms. The roadway remained closed for about 13 hours.
Several hundred of the bee hives were still intact after the accident. The surviving hives were reloaded and shipped to a farm where they will be used to pollinate crops. Honeybees are critical pollinators, especially for fruit growers.
