A long stretch of semis was parked on Interstate-35, just south of Des Moines for almost 10 hours this morning. Shortly after one o’clock this morning a semi trailer carrying 156 pigs jackknifed on Interstate-35. The wreck happened on the southbound side of I-35, near the Martensdale exit.
That’s about 25 miles south of Des Moines. Another truck was brought in to haul the live pigs away. Some of the pigs were killed, however, and their carcasses were hauled away in another truck. Many long-haul truckers with cargo drive that stretch of Interstate 35 in the early morning hours and the line of parked, southbound semis stretched for about five miles.
Traffic in the northbound lanes, however, continued at high speed through the area. Officials say it will probably be late morning before the wreck is cleared and southbound I-35 reopens in that area.
AUDIO: Radio Iowa’s O. Kay Henderson reports. :40 MP3
