A Marysville man was cited Saturday after the trailer he was hauling opened and dumped horse carcasses on the freeway.
Rodney L. Hockensmith, 66, of 17724 Raymond Road, was cited for not securing the load on his vehicles.
According to the Marysville Division of Police, about 8:15 a.m. Saturday, Hockensmith was driving a Ford F-250 truck with a large dump trailer east on U.S. 33 near Marysville’s pedestrian bridge.
Hockensmith told police that he got onto the highway and his trailer started to whip or fishtail.
“The trailer came around the vehicle and spun him,” Marysville Deputy Police Chief Tony Brooks said. “At that point, the back door came open.”
According to the report, Hockensmith told investigators he was able to keep from crashing the truck, but “the trailer let loose of about a third of his load.”
The load on the truck was horse carcasses and composted dirt. Hockensmith works for a company that collects and transports horse and other animal carcasses for disposal.
“These were not same-day dead animals,” Brooks said. “These had been dead several days, several weeks.”
When police arrived, they found “a large amount of debris in the roadway.” Brooks said that in addition to the composted dirt, there was “an undetermined number of horse carcasses.”
“I called the street dept. and they had three crew members respond with a small dump truck and a Bobcat,” according to the police report.
The man’s son, who owns the truck, also came to help with the cleanup.
After the dirt and carcasses were removed from the road, Marysville Division of Fire washed the road with nearly 5,000 gallons of water.
“Because of the nature of the incident and the condition of the carcasses, there was some significant clean-up that was required before the road could be reopened,” Brooks said.
In all, the road was closed for nearly 90 minutes.
According to the report, “no damage was done to any vehicles or the roadway, aside from the mess.”