Dead animal parts spill onto Wash. highway, causing 7-mile traffic backup

JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. The Washington State Patrol says a rendering truck that spilled dead animal parts across two lanes of northbound Interstate 5 created a seven-mile traffic backup Thursday evening.

Trooper Guy Gill says the truck driver stopped quickly to avoid slow-moving traffic in front of him as he was passing Joint Base Lewis-McChord. What Gill delicately described as "the cargo" spilled over the sides of the open container.

A front-end loader was brought in to clean up and the lanes reopened shortly before 9 p.m. Gill says the driver was cited for failure to secure his load.

In a photo post on Twitter, Gill said:

Gill also tweeted: "I know this doesn't look good but trust me, it smells even worse!"

The trooper says the same thing happened in the same area in late June when a rendering truck braked quickly and its load "just sloshed over."