Fire crews, deputies respond to overturned semitractor hauling live hogs

POLO – Some hogs perished after a semitractor hauling a livestock trailer overturned on Route 52 northwest of Polo on May 6.

Ogle County sheriff’s deputies and Polo firefighters and ambulance personnel responded to the scene at 10:48 a.m. and found the semitractor and trailer on its side near the intersection with Robin Road.

Fire crews from Polo and Mt. Morris worked to free the hogs from the overturned trailer and put them into smaller trailers.

“There were 174 hogs in the trailer,” Polo Fire Chief Jim Ports said.

He said some of the hogs died, but he did not know how many.

An initial investigation determined that the eastbound semitractor and livestock trailer failed to negotiate a curve in the road. The tractor-trailer combination entered the south ditch and overturned, the sheriff’s office said in a news release.

The driver of the semitractor, Bryan Varney, 60, of Dows, Iowa, suffered minor injuries and was taken to OSF Saint Katherine Hospital by Polo EMS.

Varney was cited for failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident and improper lane usage.