‘There’s a lot of dead bees on the highway:’ Traffic accident releases millions of bees in Baldwin
Beekeepers are still working to recover some of the thousands of bees that escaped after an early morning traffic crash in the Baldwin area.
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<
Florida Highway Patrol says a tractor-trailer collided into a truck carrying millions of bees. The beekeeping company says this is a significant financial loss, but the dollar amount has yet to be determined.
[DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks]
Trent Padgett is a beekeeper for Days Bee Company in Broxton, Georgia, and is one of the drivers involved in this morning’s accident. It happened along U-S highway 301 and I-10.
Padgett says he and some of his co-workers were simply passing through Baldwin trying to get to Lawtey, Florida to make some honey. That’s when a semi-truck crashed into his truck knocking him, his co-workers and a number of his bee colonies over.
“I was coming down 301 South and at the intersection here a driver in a semi was trying to make a U-turn. He had a green light on his side too but not a green turn signal. He turned in front of me, I didn’t even see it coming,” Padgett said.
Padgett says the truck is totaled and that the front side of his door was caved in forcing him to climb out the passenger side. Thankfully no one was hurt.
Related Story: Thousands of bees released Baldwin area after crash involving bee truck
“I’m upset because I’ve lost equipment that’s not easy to replace, we’ve lost a lot of bees that would’ve made us income,” Padgett said.
Possibly 5 million bees to be exact. Trent and family-owned business Day’s Bee company was carrying over 100 hives, each hive holding up to 50,000 bees.
Action News Jax’s Princes Jhane’ Stepherson reached out to Florida Highway Patrol to confirm who was at fault in this crash. At the time of this story being published ANJ has not heard back yet. In the meantime, Padgett and his crew are still working to gather as many of their bees as possible to bring them back home to Broxton.
While Padget and his crew of beekeepers have rescued and loaded up as many of their bee colonies as they could, they left one behind. Padgett is hoping that by doing so some bees that have buzzed off will return.
He will come back in a few days to check on them.
[SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter]
“We’re going to try to see what’s okay, there’s a lot of dead bees on the highway,” Padgett said.
STAY UPDATED: Download the Action News Jax app for live updates on breaking stories
