A 'Second-Long Sleep,' Then Thousands of Loose Chickens

Some 7,000 chickens on their way to be slaughtered had an unexpected shot at freedom Tuesday when the truck transporting them crashed into a bridge in Austria, spilling its load on the highway. Traffic on the A1 autobahn into Vienna was snarled for hours as authorities cleared the scene of dead birds and tried to catch the survivors, thousands of which ran onto both sides of the highway, the Local reports. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reports that it took 120 firefighters four hours to catch all the stray chickens. A police spokesman tells CNN that the driver says he hit a bridge pillar after falling into a "second-long sleep." No humans were hurt in the accident. (More chickens stories.)