Tuscola County beet farms can’t catch a break as highway M-81 is flooded with sugar beets twice in a matter of days, following a pair of accidents that took place a mile and a half apart
November 12, 2023 at 18:45
The beet farms of Tuscola County, Michigan, have been having a tough autumn, after two trucks loaded with the vegetables crashed days apart. The most recent accident happened on November 2, and was caught on video.
Shot from what appears to have been a bird feeder camera, the video shows a semi with two trailers attached driving along highway M-81. The truck, which had the right of way, is cut off by a white SUV that pulls out in front of it.
The semi driver tries to take evasive action, steering to the right and slamming on the brakes in an attempt to avoid the SUV. However, the move is too aggressive for the truck, which rolls onto its side, spilling two trailer-loads of sugar beets onto the road.
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The vegetables were strewn around across the road, and made it into the parking lot of a Prahin & Associates, a nearby tax-prep business, reports Tuscola Today. Fortunately, although the truck did still hit the SUV, the impact was significantly milder than it could have been.
Witnesses on the scene report that the driver of the black SUV that was innocently headed in the opposite direction at the time was complaining of neck pain after one of the trailers impacted their vehicle. The condition of the other people involved in the crash is not clear.
Naturally, traffic was rerouted in the wake of the accident, and police say they are investigating. Weirdly, it was the second accident involving a semi carrying sugar beets on highway M-81 the local police have had to respond to in less than seven days.
The first took place on October 27, about a mile and a half (2.4 km) away from the November 2 accident. That accident also saw sugar beets spilling onto the road, and led to minor injuries for the truck’s driver, as well the driver of a pickup truck that was involved in the incident.
The moral of the stories is always look both ways before you turn onto a highway, especially if you live close to a beet farm.