A semi truck carrying millions of bees that tipped over on Monday evening with an unknown number of the insects escaping will likely not have any detrimental impact on the local environment.
The crash happened at the intersection of Durston and Gooch Hill Road, west of Bozeman. Montana Highway Patrol says the driver tried to take a tight turn and tipped over into the ditch, freeing the bees and shutting down both roads for hours. The Florida-based trucking company that owns the truck says the semi, with what they say was 78,000 pounds of honeybees, is back on the road to drop the bees off at their destination in North Dakota.
The incident was a new challenge for many of the first responders in Bozeman, with Hyalite Fire volunteer firefighter Tracy Echert saying that she'd "never seen this on a call before."
But the escaped bees aren't the only ones in Bozeman. In fact, honey is big business for Montanans.