By Nick Watson nwatson@gainesvilletimes.com 
@NickWatsonTimes
@NickWatsonTimes
POSTED: July 9, 2015 12:05 a.m.
ERIN O. SMITH/The Times
A tractor trailer carrying chickens overturned Wednesday. View Larger
Some chickens fluttered to freedom Wednesday evening after a tractor-trailer overturned in Lula.
A truck for Pilgrim’s Pride flipped on its right side around 6 p.m. Wednesday at the intersection of Ga. 51/Old Cornelia Highway at Ga. 52/Lula Road.
“(The driver)’s making a right-hand turn off of (Ga.) 51 ... and basically cuts it too short,” Georgia State Patrol Trooper Brodie Forrester said.
The back tires got into a ditch during the turn, and the truck overturned, Forrester said.
The driver of the vehicle was uninjured, though some chickens did not survive.
“I think there’s a couple dead ones under the trailer,” Forrester said.
A small amount of fuel leaked from the tanks onto the road, the trooper said.
David Rider, of Cleveland, has seen the same fate befall other chicken truck drivers. The last instance he recalled was about six weeks ago.
“You get that thing loaded with chickens, it’s top heavy bad,” Rider said.
Chickens toward the front of the trailer escaped the truck, but did not cross the road.
As the tow truck employees worked to get the truck flipped, other chickens made their way out of the crates.