A beekeeper deplores thousands of dollars in damage after losing several colonies in a traffic crash.
Trent Padgett was transporting around one million bees in his pickup truck on a highway in Duval County, northeastern Florida, according to reports by local media.
His vehicle was hit by an articulated lorry. Trent told broadcaster WKMG News 6: “We probably lost about 25 to 30 hives completely.”
Reflecting on the accident, the 20-year-old beekeeper said: “We both had a green light, but the semi-truck made a U-turn there without a turn signal, and I didn’t see it coming so I just hit right into the front end of the truck.”
He added: “A lot of bees got lost. A lot of them flew away.”
The pollinators did not act aggressively but just flew around their hives after the crash, according to a statement by the police.
Trent claimed that the bees he had lost in the collision were worth around USD 40,000 (EUR 37,000, GBP 32,200).
He explained: “A lot of bees got lost. A lot of them flew away. There are a lot of dead bees on the highway that came from those boxes.”
The highway had to be closed down temporarily. Neither the young apiarist nor the 26-year-old driver of the articulated truck was injured.
