UPDATE @ 10: 35 p.m.: The driver of the semi hauling approximately 2,400 feeder pigs estimates that two to three dozen died when the vehicle overturned and crashed on the flyover ramp from I-75 North to I-70 West.
He was headed to Illinois from North Carolina, according to authorities who at 10 p.m. were nearing the end of moving the pigs from the wrecked trailer to a new one brought to the scene.
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A tow truck driver, among the workers who helped move the pigs from one trailer to a second one, estimated that 2,400 pigs were in the trailer. That’s up from the count of approximately 2,000 given earlier this evening by the state patrol.
Those authorities were working to right the damaged semitrailer, clean up the scene and reopen the ramp to normal traffic flow sometime before 11 p.m.
UPDATE @ 9:26 p.m.:
A contingent of workers is continuing to move pigs from the crashed trailer to another trailer parked on the flyover ramp from I-75 North to I-70 West. The operation is now more than 2 ½ hours old.
UPDATE @ 6:33 p.m.:
The decision has been made to keep the flyover ramp from I-75 North to I-70 West open while pigs trapped in the crashed semitrailer are moved to another semitrailer.
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Traffic is getting by on the left shoulder of the ramp. The decision by state troopers on scene reverses earlier word that the ramp would be shut down during the transfer of pigs.
Sgt. Frank Simmons, of the state patrol's Dayton Post, said the pigs would be moved from the wrecked trailer to another brought to the scene to avoid crushing more of the pigs if the wrecked trailer were to be righted with the animals still in it.
Most the estimated 2,000 feeder pigs survived the crash, the sergeant said.
UPDATE @ 4:55 p.m.:
The number of pigs aboard the semitrailer that has crashed on the flyover ramp from I-75 North to I-70 West has been upgraded to approximately 2,000, according to the state patrol. An unknown number of the animals have perished.
The ramp will be shut down for a time to allow another semitrailer to be brought in to carry away the pigs.
So far, the state patrol is contemplating a charge of failure to control for the driver, who was not injured.
INITIAL REPORT
We’re on the scene of an overturned semitrailer hauling an estimated 1,000 feeder pigs on the flyover from I-75 North to I-70 West.
The driver was not injured, according to state troopers with the Dayton Post Ohio Highway Patrol.
The accident was dispatched about 4:10 p.m.
One lane on the far left remains open, according to troopers.
In Oct. 18, a semitrailer hauling 2,500 piglets crashed on the same ramp. The semi was headed to a farm in Indiana and an unknown number of piglets perished. The driver was not injured, but was cited for speed.
In June 2015, an estimated 1,100 piglets were killed when a semitrailer hauling them crashed on U.S. 35 West.
We will update today’s developing report.
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