Millions Of Bees Swarm Calif. Highway

Overturned Truck Lets Loose Nearly 400 Hives; Officers Stung Trying To Clear Accident

(CBS/AP)  Millions of swarming honey bees are on the loose after a truck carrying crates of the insects flipped over on a California highway.

The California Highway Patrol says 8-12 million bees escaped Sunday from the crates in which they were stored and swarmed over an area of Highway 99 stinging officers, firefighters and tow truck drivers trying to clear the accident.

CHP Officer Michael Bradley said a tractor-trailer flipped over while entering the highway on its way to Yakima, Wash.

The flatbed was carrying bee crates each filled with up to 30,000 bees, reports CBS News affiliate KOVR-TV.

Bradley said several beekeepers driving by the accident stopped to assist in the bee wrangling.

"They're just confused," beekeeper Elisha Devai told KOVR. "The problem is that there are so many broken boxes that we're stacking them one on top of the other, and they don't belong together. They're going to be swarming around for a while."

"It was possibly an unsafe speed for his load," said a CHP spokesman.

Authorities are advising motorists traveling through the area to keep their windows rolled up and air conditioners off.

The bees had been used in the San Joaquin Valley to pollinate crops.