LAKE STATION, Ind. – Indiana State Police turned to the public for help in locating a semi-truck driver who fled after losing over 200 chickens during a crash.

The chickens were inside 28 fallen crates from what was described as possibly a Volvo truck.

Police said on July 14 the truck was merging from the eastbound lanes of Interstate 80/94 to the Indiana Toll Road in Lake County when it struck a concrete median wall. The impact caused the crates to fall from the trailer.

Police said responding troopers located the crates with each containing about eight chickens scattered on the ramp, along with some birds out of their crates free ranging on the ramp.

Dozens of chickens died.

Police said the crates of live chickens were moved to the right shoulder to clear the roadway while additional troopers were called to help safely catch the loose chickens.

Indiana Toll Road crews transported the surviving chickens to a shaded area at one of their facilities for pick-up later by Lake County Animal Control, the Humane Society and the Indiana Region 1 Animal Rescue Team for proper care and handling.

Anyone with information about the owner and/or the chickens was asked to contact the ISP Lowell Post at (219) 696-6242.

Bill Field, a farm safety expert and professor in agricultural engineering at Purdue University, said truck drivers hauling farm animals or any commercial products hardly ever leave accident scenes.

If they do, Field said there’s a chance the operator may have been undocumented, especially now, since the country is cracking down on illegal migrants in the truck driving industry.

“If something bad happens, they’re gone,” he said.

Field, a veteran investigator of numerous farm-related accidents, said the fleeing driver also could have been without the required commercial driver’s license and insurance.

He said an effort to find the driver should start by locating chicken processors nearest to the crash site where the truck could have possibly been going. Field said processors will know if any trucks they were expecting never showed up or had fewer chickens than anticipated. Processors will also know the origin of the animals in the load.

Field said crates of chickens on flatbeds are stacked on top of each other and secured by wide nylon by straps holding them in place. The impact could have packed enough force to rip one of the straps loose and compromise the security of the load.

“If you’re doing 50 to 60 miles per hour and you hit something, whatever you got on that truck is potentially going to go somewhere,” he said.