Livestock Hauling Pigs Overturns on Agawa Hill

 

Early Thursday evening a livestock hauler carrying little pigs overturned on the Agawa Hill just after the entrance to the Agawa Bay Scenic Lookout. Estimates are that the truck was carrying 2,500 10-12 pound pigs.

 

The southbound lane was closed because the tractor had remained on the roadway, with the trailer of pigs laying on the steep embankment. It took Lamon Motors, Albert & Sons Towing (White River) to remove the tractor from the trailer.

 

 

On Friday there were lengthy closures lasting 2 hours and more to allow for surviving pigs to be removed from the transport, and dead ones to be removed for disposal, most likely at the Montreal River Landfill site. The pigs were hand bombed one by one, in a bucket brigade from the tractor-trailer to small livestock trailers.

 

During the closures, the team dragged the trailer up in stages from the embankment. Guard rails that hadn’t been destroyed as the tractor-trailer left the roadway, had to be removed as the tractor-trailer was dragged back up.

 

 

Traffic control was conducted by J. Provost Contracting. OPP did issue a media release at 6:25 a.m. Saturday morning, “Crews are currently working to unload the contents of the trailer prior to removing it from the embankment. Beginning this morning, those travelling this stretch of Highway 17 may experience delays as the highway will need to be shut down intermittently in order for crews to remove the trailer. Traffic will be allowed through the area as operations permit.”

There was no word on the condition of the driver and/or passengers.