The scene of the accident

The scene of the accident

Chum run blocks highway

A truck loaded with fish totes rolled over on Egan Drive on Monday afternoon, spilling thousands of pounds of chum salmon onto the highway and blocking inbound traffic for almost three hours.

“It was a medium-duty commercial truck. It was carrying a load of salmon,” Juneau Police Department Lt. David Campbell said by phone Monday.

JPD got a report of the single vehicle rollover near the intersection of Egan Drive and Highland Drive close to Juneau-Douglas High School around 3:22 p.m. The truck was headed inbound toward town. JPD officers were on scene within three minutes, Campbell said.

“One person was in the truck — the driver. He was out of the truck and standing when we arrived,” he said.

The driver was transported by ambulance to Bartlett Regional Hospital.

A JPD Facebook post by Chief Bryce Johnson, who was on scene, said about 10,000 pounds of chum salmon were blocking the highway.

KTOO production manager Mikko Wilson, who was also on scene, tweeted out a higher figure of 16,000 pounds.

Campbell said both the driver and the truck were from out of state.

“I heard fish was headed downtown to one of the processors. I don’t want to name a processor at this time,” he said.

Photos of the accident show people in bibs, rubber gloves and hair protection throwing the spilled fish back into totes marked “Icy Strait.” Icy Strait Seafoods processes its fish at Taku Fisheries located downtown.

Representatives from Taku Fisheries and Icy Strait could not be reached by press time.

A tow truck arrived around 5:15 p.m., according to JPD.

After Capital City Fire/Rescue hosed down the area, inbound traffic on Egan, which had been closed since the incident, reopened around 6 p.m.


Original post:

A truck loaded with fish totes rolled over on Egan Highway Monday afternoon, spilling hundreds of salmon onto the median and street.

The Juneau Police Department described it on Facebook as a single vehicle rollover near Highland Avenue, in front of Juneau-Douglas High School. Egan Drive inbound is completely blocked and outbound is down to one lane, the Facebook post said.

Traffic has been delayed for at least 40 minutes. The Empire has heard reports of inbound traffic being backed up at to the Juneau Yacht Club.

Police advise motorists to avoid the area and use Glacier Highway via Channel Vista if you must drive between downtown and the Mendenhall Valley.

There’s no word yet on the driver’s condition or the cause of the crash.

More in News

(Juneau Empire file photo)
Aurora forecast for the week of March 25

These forecasts are courtesy of the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Geophysical Institute… Continue reading

(Michael Penn / Juneau Empire file photo)
Police calls for Tuesday, March 26, 2024

This report contains public information from law enforcement and public safety agencies.

The aging Tustumena ferry, long designated for replacement, arrives in Homer after spending the day in Seldovia in this 2010 photo. (Homer News file photo)
Feds OK most of state’s revised transportation plan, but ferry and other projects again rejected

Governor’s use of ferry revenue instead of state funds to match federal grants a sticking point.

The Shopper’s Lot is among two of downtown Juneau’s three per-hour parking lots where the cash payments boxes are missing due to vandalism this winter. But as of Wednesday people can use the free ParkSmarter app to make payments by phone. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)
Pay-by-phone parking for downtown Juneau debuts with few reported complaints

App for hourly lots part of series of technology upgrades coming to city’s parking facilities.

A towering Lutz spruce, center, in the Chugach National Forest is about to be hoisted by a crane Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2015, for transport to the West Lawn of Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., to be the 2015 U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree. (Photo courtesy of the U.S. Forest Service)
Tongass National Forest selected to provide 2024 U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree

Eight to 10 candidate trees will be evaluated, with winner taking “whistlestop tour” to D.C.

Annauk Olin, holding her daugher Tulġuna T’aas Olin, and Rochelle Adams pose on March 20, 2024, after giving a presentation on language at the Alaska Just Transition Summit in Juneau. The two, who work together at the Alaska Public Interest Research Group’s Language Access program, hope to compile an Indigenous environmental glossary. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
Project seeks to gather Alaska environmental knowledge embedded in Indigenous languages

In the language of the Gwich’in people of northeastern Alaska, the word… Continue reading

The room where the House Community and Regional Affairs Committee holds its meeting sits empty on Tuesday. A presentation about an increase in the number of inmate deaths in state custody was abruptly canceled here. (Claire Stremple/Alaska Beacon)
Republican lawmakers shut down legislative hearing about deaths in Alaska prisons

Former commissioner: “All this will do, is it will continue to inflame passions of advocacy groups.”

(Michael Penn / Juneau Empire file photo)
Police calls for Monday, March 25, 2024

This report contains public information from law enforcement and public safety agencies.

Employees at the Kensington Mine removing tailings from Johnson Creek on Feb. 17 following a Jan. 31 spill of about 105,000 gallons of slurry from the mine, although a report by the mine’s owners states about half slurry reached the creek 430 meters away. (Photo from report by Coeur Alaska)
Emergency fisheries assessments sought after 105,000-gallon tailings spill at Kensington Mine

Company says Jan. 31 spill poses no risk to Berners Bay habitat, but NOAA seeks federal evaluation.

Most Read