THE BALLOON MAN

Elephants, driver escape crash unharmed on I-10 in Hancock County

 

from---sunherald.com
By ROBIN FITZGERALD
October 15, 2012
HANCOCK COUNTY -- Four circus elephants and their driver walked away from a crash unharmed Sunday night after the driver reported another vehicle merged into his lane on Interstate 10, causing him to run off the highway, according to the Mississippi Highway Patrol.

Terence Crowley of Hugo, Okla., was driving a truck and hauling the elephants in a trailer when the truck and trailer ran off the highway into woods near the 8 mile-marker in Hancock County, MHP Master Sgt. Johnny Poulos said.

The truck and trailer travelled down an embankment and the front of the truck came to rest at the edge of a treeline. Poulos said the truck's front axle broke, but no injuries were reported.

The westbound tractor-trailer had left Mobile and was heading to Hammond, La., when the crash occurred, according to Firefighter Kurt Necaise of West Hancock Fire Rescue, based in Pearlington.

"The truck and the trailer remained upright," Necaise said. "It took us a couple of hours to clear the scene."

The Highway Patrol was notified of the crash about 11:30 p.m.

 

COURTESY HANCOCK FIRE RESCUE

Elephants who survived a crash on Interstate 10 in Hancock County walk with trunks holding tails as they are led about after the accident Sunday night.

Firefighters said the owners of the elephants sent help to off-load the animals from the trailer and held them along the side of the highway.

Pictures submitted by first responders show the elephants walking with trunks holding tails as they were moved around.

State troopers reported the elephants were placed back on the trailer and a tow truck drove them to the state line, where other arrangements were made for them to reach their destination.

Read more here: http://www.sunherald.com/2012/10/15/4244891/elephants-driver-escape-crash.html#storylink=cpy

 

FOLLOW UP STORY

 

4 elephants OK after circus truck wrecks in Mississippi
By Holbrook Mohr
Associated PressAssociated Press
10/15/2012

JACKSON, Miss. -- A circus official says a truck pulling a trailer full of elephants ran off an interstate in southern Mississippi over the weekend, but the four pachyderms and the driver weren't harmed.

Renee Storey, an executive with Cole Brothers Circus of the Stars, said the elephants were being transported from Alabama to Louisiana on Sunday night when the truck went off Interstate 10 and ran down an embankment.

Mississippi Highway Patrol spokesman Johnny Poulos said the truck driver reported another vehicle forced him off the interstate. The truck was disabled, but the trailer wasn't seriously damaged and later was towed it to its intended destination at circus grounds in Hammond, La.

Storey says the four elephants were calm and playful on Monday after their arrival in Louisiana.