Rather than cleaning their plates of an Alberta beef rib-eye, police officers were stuck pulling frozen beef out of the Battle River on Thursday.
Traffic was moving slowly for most of the day on Hwy 2 near Ponoka after a northbound semi, carrying 54,000 kg of beef, left the road and sped down an embankment and into the river shortly after 7 a.m.
Sgt. Nathan Kardish, with Ponoka’s Integrated Traffic Services, said they are investigating the cause of the accident but poor road conditions were a contributing factor. No one was injured.
“A small amount of beef fell into the river and was recovered by the teams that were there,” Kardish said on Thursday.
RCMP Traffic Services, Alberta Traffic Sheriffs, along with Alberta Environment, Alberta Transportation, Alberta Highways and Ponoka fire and rescue services, attended the scene to ensure diesel didn’t leak into the river.
“The fire department set up the dam buoys in case one of the tanks did rupture,” Kardish said. “But once we pulled the truck out it looked like that tanks were not compromised, which is good.”
Kardish said it took five tow trucks to pull the semi out of the river, which is why the northbound lane on Hwy 2 was closed for the majority of the day. Both lanes were reopened by 3 p.m.
“It took quite a bit of work. When the truck was pulled out it was so full of meat and water that it ripped in two.”