(Newswire.net — July 19, 2017) —Salvatore J. Tragale, the driver of a large truck carrying 13 containers of some 7,500 pounds of live hagfish or ‘slime eels,’ could not stop the vehicle when the flagger halted the traffic for construction works on Highway 101, on Thursday afternoon.
The truck rolled over, spilling all the slime cargo along the road near Otter Rock, a community in Lincoln County, Oregon, and also causing a multiple vehicle collision.
Highway 101 in Oregon resembled a scene from a nasty horror movie.
The remaining containers and the flatbed then separated, causing four southbound vehicles to smash into each other.
Fortunately, no one was seriously injured in the incident, while one person suffered minor injuries, the Depoe Bay Fire District reported, which, together with the local police was very busy removing all the spilled slime
Witnesses said that the scene was unbelievable and disgusting. It was an indescribable mess.
The Oregon State Police joked on Twitter: ”In this heat… what is this going to start smelling like in the next few days?” And: ”What to tell the drycleaner?”
Police and the Depoe Bay Fire District spent hours cleaning the roadway. They used fire hoses and a bulldozer to remove the slime.
The truck overturned around 12:00 pm, shutting down the highway, which reopened to traffic after 4:00 pm. Drivers were advised to drive carefully in the area.
Tragale was driving a truck filled with hagfish, about four tons, intended for the Korean market.
According to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, hagfish, also known as slime eels, are primitive jawless fish, similar to lamprey, that produce a protein based mucous through the glands on each side of their body when they are distressed.