A mysterious substance was causing vehicles to spin out of control: It was 500 gallons of chicken fat.
The following written content by Mike Pomranz
If you’re driving in the rain, watch out for hydroplaning. If you’re driving in the snow, watch out for icy patches. And if you’re driving in New Albany, Mississippi, watch out for… chicken fat.
On Monday afternoon, local police were dispatched to a car accident — a seemingly routine event until they reached the scene. “When officers arrived, they found a considerable amount of liquid on the roadway, causing a very slippery condition,” New Albany Fire Chief Mark Whiteside said, according to the New Albany Gazette. As calls of slick conditions on roads in the region continued, more local authorities got involved. Eventually, they determined that the “trail of extremely slick substance” was originating from a biodiesel facility.
Once in touch with that facility, the culprit was determined: chicken fat, which can be used to make biofuels (or zucchini). “Apparently there had been some mechanical issues unloading and the product which was chicken fat did not unload properly,” Whiteside was quoted as saying. “The top hatch on the tank may not have been secured as it should have been, and when the truck-trailer would stop and start again, significant amounts of product would leak from the trailer and out on the ground.”
In all, Whiteside estimated that 500 gallons or more of chicken fat may have ended up on area roads, causing multiple vehicles to spin out of control, according to NEMiss.news. In the short term, sand and dirt were reportedly placed on the slick patches to make them less slippery and lime was added to deal with the smell until cleanup crews came out to wash away the whole mess. Read more from Food & Wine.
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