ST. GEORGE – Traffic on southbound Interstate 15 slowed to a crawl Friday afternoon when several bales of hay flew off the back of a trailer and scattered across the roadway south of the Dixie Drive interchange.
Around 2:15 p.m., a woman driving a pickup truck pulling the trailer loaded with hay bales on southbound I-15 began to lose control of the truck. This caused the trailer to fishtail and about 20 or so bales to spill onto the roadway, Utah High Patrol Trooper Grant Hintze said.
“I was driving and the next thing I know there’s a big puff of green and hay everywhere,” St. George resident Kayden Foremaster said. He was on southbound I-15 between mile markers 4 and 5, about a quarter-mile behind the trailer when the bales broke free.
People ahead of Foremaster were slamming on their brakes and swerving around the falling hay that he said spread across the roadway with the exception of the median where traffic began to move through, he said.
While some of the hay spread did spill across the road, the majority dropped the right lane and median, Hintze said.
Once the driver realized she had lost the bales she pulled over and, along with others with her, began to get the bales out of the road as fast as possible, the trooper said.
While passing by, Foremaster said he saw a motorcycle rider stop at the scene to help clear the road.
Units of the Utah Highway Patrol and Utah Department of Transportation arrived soon after and helped direct traffic around the hay spill while also aiding in the hay’s removal.
“Our main concern was clearing the roadway,” Hintze said, adding that the right lane had to be shut down as everyone involved worked to restack the hay and secure it.
As no injuries or damage to vehicles was reported in connection with the hay spill, no citations were issued, Hintze said.
Earlier this month a trailer loaded with hay on state Route 24 in Sevier County tipped and fall onto two passing vehicles, injuring the vehicles’ occupants.
Read more: Trailer loaded with hay tips onto nearby vehicles, resulting in severe injuries
Investigators believe the load of hay in SR-24 incident was not sufficiently secured and lent to the load tipping.
This report is based on statements from police or other emergency responders and may not contain the full scope of findings.
Ed. note: This story had been udpated with remarks from the Utah Highway Patrol.
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Multiple bales of hay spilled off the back end of a trailer on southbound I-15 just south of the Dixie Drive interchange in St. George, Utah, May 18, 2018 | Photo by Mori Kessler, St. George News
Multiple bales of hay spilled off the back end of a trailer on southbound I-15 just south of the Dixie Drive interchange in St. George, Utah, May 18, 2018 | Photo by Mori Kessler, St. George News
Multiple bales of hay spilled off the back end of a trailer on southbound I-15 just south of the Dixie Drive interchange in St. George, Utah, May 18, 2018 | Photo by Mori Kessler, St. George News
Multiple bales of hay spilled off the back end of a trailer on southbound I-15 just south of the Dixie Drive interchange in St. George, Utah, May 18, 2018 | Photo by Mori Kessler, St. George News
Multiple bales of hay spilled off the back end of a trailer on southbound I-15 just south of the Dixie Drive interchange in St. George, Utah, May 18, 2018 | Photo by Mori Kessler, St. George News
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Ol’ Bubba farmer needs to go back to HAY TYING DOWN SCHOOL. hahaha
Now that is funny!
Please issue citations to this buffoon. Either get the right equipment and use it correctly or DON’T haul it! I see these “GET’R” done types all day on the road with oversized and unsecured loads, it is time to pull em over!!
With all the countless people moving here and now on our roads we need to triple the size of local law enforcement and get more UHP to cite people like this before the accident happens….I saw a knucklehead last week with a flatbed trailer with a pallet of concrete riding on top of metal pipe fence posts, with the pallet just a dancing away as he drove on down the highway
That won’t help because law enforcement don’t how to drive either
Terrible shame, I got caught in the middle of this thing and lost 10 minutes of my life over these folks lack of care in securing and stacking this load. Grew up hauling hay, let’s just say they got just about all of it wrong, and then wonder why it falls off. Just glad no one was hurt.
Hay ! what’s going on here?
I was going thru the gorge just entering the gorge, on the St. George shuttle and a double 18 wheeler hauling hay had dropped the entire back load thru the gorge, it was stopped at exit 22 in Mesquite.. but. when the bales dropped you couldn,t even drive thru them and then when rv,s went over themThe bales caught fire from the hot undercarriages..it was a mess..
No citation issued. Makes you wonder who the driver was, or possibly who the driver was related to…