The company that spilled raw meat on Interstate 880 in Oakland last month is a Texas-based animal processing company with a long history of accidentally dumping animal carcasses, blood and meat parts on U.S. roads, NBC Bay Area’s Investigative Unit confirmed via the California Highway Patrol.
The raw chicken parts spilled out of an open-top trailer hauling food from Darling Ingredients, a Texas-based animal-processing company that turns discarded animal by-products into ingredients for pet food, fertilizer and fuel, and operates a large plant in San Francisco.
The spill disrupted traffic for hours and caused four accidents, including cars flipping over on the slippery blanket of meat that covered the road. No one was seriously injured, and an investigation into the spill is ongoing.
Workers remove pile of raw chicken from I-880 freeway in Oakland
According to the CHP, the truck driver did not pull over to the shoulder and wait for authorities after the load was sent onto the highway, which is a violation of state law.
A Darling Ingredients spokesman said in a statement that the company has launched an internal investigation into the incident and is “cooperating with all appropriate authorities,” but declined to answer a series of specific questions about the company’s policies or safety record.
As the CHP continues to investigate the company’s May spill in Oakland, NBC Bay Area investigative teams are digging into Darling Ingredients’ history and finding a trail of similarly horrific stains left behind by the company’s trucks. Recent Darling Ingredients spills in places like New Jersey, Virginia and Canada have made national headlines.
Next, there is the rural farming city of Clinton, North Carolina.
Over the past two years, Darling Ingredients trucks have been accidentally dumping blood, organs, pig parts, feces and animal heads onto city roads, Clinton Police Chief Anthony Davis said.
The city is frequented by truck drivers making deliveries for companies including Darling Ingredients Inc. and its subsidiary, Valley Proteins Inc. The chief said the most recent spill in Clinton came just three weeks before the spill on Interstate 880 in Oakland.
“I personally think this is degrading to our community,” Davis said. “Our citizens deserve to be treated better.”
Davis said the city spent at least $36,000 to clean up the spill, which he said also leaves a lingering odor.
“The smell is just awful,” Davis said. “If you drive through it, you can’t get the smell out of your car.”
Davis said the company often transports animal by-products in open-top trailers covered only with tarps. NBC Bay Area saw a similarly equipped truck pull into the company’s San Francisco plant.
A truck at Darling Ingredients’ San Francisco facility.
“They brake suddenly, they go too fast around curves, and they’re hauling their byproducts, which are mostly liquids, in an open-top trailer,” Davis said. “So when they brake suddenly, things bounce around behind the trailer, and then they fly off the side of the trailer and onto the road.”
Mr Davis said Darling needed to improve its hauling methods as spills continued.
Darling Ingredients’ San Francisco rendering plant
According to federal transportation officials, the company has received at least 27 violations from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration in the past year for overloading trucks.
Inspectors also found 12 “load securing” violations at Darling subsidiary Valley Proteins in the past year, officials said.
The chief said he wasn’t surprised to hear that the driver responsible for the Oakland spill left without waiting for authorities. In Clinton, Darling Ingredients drivers left the scene of animal waste spills so often that city officials lobbied state lawmakers to pass a bill that would make it a misdemeanor to do so, Davis said.
Though the law only went into effect last December, the chief said two Darling Ingredients drivers have already faced criminal charges since then. In one case, Davis said, they found the offending truck in a neighboring county by “basically following a blood trail.” Neither driver has pleaded guilty in court.
“I think this just shows that we’re not making any progress,” Davis said. “I’ve never seen a UPS or milk truck slam on the brakes and spill packages and milk on the highway. We have to find a way to transport these goods safely.”
Darling Ingredients did not respond to specific questions about the spill in North Carolina, the criminal charges against the driver or the shipping violations cited by inspectors.
