From today's Fresno Bee:
Angry bees swarm road after crash.
Truck hits cow, tossing hives onto highway.
By Jason D. Plemons
The Fresno Bee
(Updated Thursday, April 8, 2004, 12:45 PM)
A beekeeper hauling hundreds of hives in his truck hit a cow late Tuesday on Highway 190 east of Porterville near Springville and crashed into a bridge, freeing millions of bees.
Jerry Tillery of Porterville was headed west with about 300 boxes of bees and a forklift on the back of his truck when he hit a black cow that had wandered onto the darkened highway, according to California Highway Patrol reports.
Tillery's truck hit part of the Pleasant Oak bridge and flipped onto its side and off the road, where it ended up in a ditch. Tillery, 64, was taken to Sierra View District Hospital for treatment of major injuries.
A hospital spokeswoman refused to provide information on his condition Wednesday night.
The boxes of bees were scattered across the road, and the angry bees swarmed, blocking visibility on the roadway and slowing rescue efforts.
"It was quite a scene," said Dan Andrews, who owns A to Z Bee Removal Service in Laton. CHP called Andrews to help clean up the swarm. "They were swarming everywhere, but they eventually calmed down."
Andrews had to work fast. The cool air was working to help keep the bees calm, but soon the sun would be up, and the bees would start swarming again.
"There was no way I could save them," Andrews said. "It was just impossible. There were people needing to work out there, and it's close to a golf course. If I didn't get that thing taken care of, lots of people would have ended up getting stung."
Without the time necessary to collect them all, Andrews said, he had to exterminate them. "It was quite a shame," he said. "Those were some of the best-looking hives I've ever seen in my life. That beekeeper makes me look like an amateur."
Each box was home to 60,000 to 80,000 bees, said deputy Tulare County agriculture commissioner Bill Deavours, and each box fetches about $60 per day for the beekeeper when set up to help farmers pollinate their crops.
Bees normally are docile when they are working all day, Deavours said.
"They'll literally work themselves to death if they are out pollinating," he said. "They're pretty calm when they're like that. But when they're moved, or disturbed during something like this, look out."
Andrews said the bees stung him a few times.
Officials closed part of Highway 190 until about 11 a.m. Wednesday and diverted traffic around the crash site. The truck damaged about 50 feet of concrete railing, forcing Caltrans officials to narrow traffic to one lane for the next three or four days while crews repair the damage, spokeswoman Gloria Samaniego said.
The reporter can be reached at
jplemons@fresnobee.com
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