SAN PABLO (KCBS Radio) -- A predawn truck crash led to a firefighting effort, a massive cleanup job, and an animal-rescue operation along Interstate 80 on Thursday morning.
The big rig carrying as many as a thousand live chickens in cages overturned at the San Pablo Dam Road overcrossing , forcing the closure of all westbound lanes of I-80.
California Highway Patrol officers, firefighters, and Caltrans workers soon found themselves scrambling into the roadside underbrush, collecting escaped chickens. Other birds could be heard squawking from overturned cages. Hundreds of birds were killed in the crash and ensuing fire, though a local fire official at the scene estimated more than 75 percent of the chickens survived.
Though the cab of the big rig was demolished, the driver escaped with only minior injuries.