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MOTORISTS were spitting feathers on Tuesday morning when a trailer carrying 1,500 live chickens overturned at a busy road junction.
Hundreds of the birds made a dash for freedom after the accident at the Burnt Mill roundabout, causing major tailbacks along Elizabeth Way, Fifth Avenue and Edinburgh Way.
About 20 police officers cordoned off the area. They were joined by members of the public who helped them to round up the fleet-footed fowl.
Efforts to clear the roads continued for almost four hours, with many of the chickens managing to find hiding places in bushes on the roundabout or beneath cars parked on the forecourt of the nearby Motorsales garage.
One witness told the Star: "I had to take a picture of what was going on because my boss would never have believed me when I told him why I was over an hour late for work!"
Another said: "It was quite a surreal sight, several hundred chickens running amok on the road as the police and public got into a flap trying to round them up.
"I did feel sorry for the hundreds of people stuck in traffic, but part of me was spurring the chickens on to continue eluding their would-be captors because it was such a comical sight!"
The birds had been en route from a poultry farm in Roydon to a location in Hertfordshire when the trailer spilled its cargo shortly before 7am.
Sadly, several hundred of the chickens were killed instantly when their cages smashed open on the road, but the thousand-plus that survived the ordeal were eventually rounded up into makeshift pens by 10.45am before being loaded onto another trailer to continue their journey.
PC Sue Keel, of the Chigwell Road Policing Unit, thanked the public who stopped to round up the hens.
"We were helped by commuters who were on their way to the station and drivers of vehicles that were caught in the long traffic tailbacks," she said.
"People were running about and diving to catch some of the birds. It was a very difficult job and we were very grateful for the help from the public."
