Trucker carrying beehives reaches for chips, crashes, spills bees

truckaccidentlaw.org

This 2010 truck accident spilled bees all over the highway in Lakeville.

​A potato-chip-chomping trucker carrying a load of beehives to California from Minnesota crashed around 10 p.m. last night in Montana, spilling hives all over the highway.

The trucker, an Iowan, told Montana police that while driving he reached down to grab a bag of chips. When he looked up, a deer was standing in the middle of the road. He swerved to miss the deer, crashed into the median, and ended up flipping his rig upside down.

According to the Billings Gazette, police are still determining whether to charge the hungry trucker for careless driving.

Fortunately for those cleaning up the hive-strewn mess, bees don't pose much of a problem in Montana's currently 20-degree weather. With the onset of chilly weather, the cold-blooded insects congregate in a cluster, shivering their flight muscles to generate heat and warm the hive. So unless the bees liberated by the Interstate 94 wreck can cluster together soon, they'll presumably freeze to death.

Chalk it up as a reason why it's perhaps not a great idea to drive while hungry -- especially while carrying hives of bees, and especially when, even in Montana, Taco Bells line the highway, ready to fulfill fourth meal cravings.