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Driver injured, several pigs escape truck after crash near Watertown

Posted at 9:55 AM, Jul 18, 2017
and last updated 2017-07-18 18:10:22-04

A truck driver was injured and several pigs were killed, lost in an early morning crash near Watertown.

The Watertown Fire Chief Gregory Michalek said his department was called to the scene at 5:20 a.m. The chief said the driver of the semi truck hauling 84 pigs drifted into the shoulder, then over-corrected causing the truck to roll onto its side, hitting a power pole in the process.

Live power lines came crashing onto the truck but the chief says the driver was able to climb out, who was later taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

Several pigs were freed from the truck in the crash, wandering the nearby farm fields. A dozen pigs died and 10 more were missing when the scene was cleared hours later.

The pigs were headed to a nearby Johnsonville processing plant, less than a mile down the road from the crash. Power was knocked out to 116 customers while crews worked to fix the downed line.