EVERETT, Wash. - If you think traffic stinks where you are, just be thankful you weren't southbound a few days ago on Interstate 5.
About 2,000 pounds of treated human waste with the consistency of fresh cow manure spilled into freeway Tuesday when the driver of a tractor-trailer rig braked suddenly to avoid a stopped vehicle.
The trailer had only a cloth top, and much of the waste sloshed over the truck cab and across a wide section of the road, said patrol Sgt. Craig H. Johnson.
"It stunk," Johnson said.
The mucky waste was being hauled from a wastewater treatment plant on Fidalgo Island near Anacortes to be made into compost in Tenino, near Olympia. The accident happened about 25 miles north of Seattle.
No one was injured and the truck was undamaged.
Vehicles that went through the mess should get more than a simple hand washing to avoid contamination and prevent pollution through storm sewers, said Larry Altose, a spokesman for the state Ecology Department.
"This would be one time to take it to a commercial car wash," Altose said.
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