CD: Gone fishin’: Motorists scoop up catfish from overturned truck on Highway 82

TIM PRATT

STARKVILLE — Dozens of Oktibbeha County residents gathered Tuesday morning at the intersection of Highway 82 and Douglastown Road with their coolers in tow as work crews cleaned up the remains of an overturned catfish truck in the median.

Bill Baker, of Eupora, was driving the B&B Farms truck westbound on Highway 82 shortly after 6 a.m. when he lost control, went into the median and hit a culvert. The overturned truck spilled thousands of catfish throughout the muddy area between the eastbound and westbound lanes.

Residents from nearby homes showed up with their coolers while police and emergency personnel responded to the scene. Dozens of people left with coolers full of fish before Mississippi Highway Patrol troopers made residents leave the median so workers from the Mississippi Department of Transportation and Starkville-based Bulldog Towing could clear the scene.

Baker suffered a contusion to his head and a cut to his back, was treated at North Mississippi Medical Center in Eupora, and returned to the site a short time later. He said he wasn’t sure what caused him to veer off the highway, but does remember feeling alarmed as his truck headed into the median.

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