Highway wreck, hundreds die; who responds? Animal Control

Sunday, Sept. 27, 2009 | 2 a.m.

A bad traffic accident along Interstate 15, about a mile north of Jean, claimed 257 lives this month.

About 12:30 a.m. on Sept. 4, an eighteen-wheeler with 529 sheep aboard went off the highway, so the county’s animal control officers were called out to help at the scene.

The big rig was headed toward California with four decks of sheep in the trailer when it went off the road and overturned. Of the 257 sheep that died, 24 were euthanized by veterinarians because of the severity of their injuries. The others died in the accident.

What did Animal Control do at the scene?

In an eight-hour operation they cut a hole into a fence that separates the freeway from land, then made a corridor of people and police and tape and rope to get the survivors through the fence, Animal Control Chief Joe Boteilho said. Once the sheep got through the fence, he added, they did as herd animals are wont to do — they huddled together, calmed down and fell asleep.

Was that the strangest highway incident that Animal Control has had to deal with?

Not in Boteilho’s opinion. His selection is one from a rainy night in March 1998, when a tractor-trailer full of cattle overturned as it headed north on I-15 at the Spaghetti Bowl. A few of the animals escaped, Boteilho said, and the driver was cited for failure to use due care. As it turned out, however, not all the animals were immediately recaptured.

Several days after the accident, Animal Control officers were still searching for one that had gotten away. Boteilho and others were looking around the entry to one of the underground drainage tunnels near the crash site when a homeless man came running out, yelling for help. The man was white as a sheet and was whimpering that he had “been attacked, ‘slimed by a big monster,’ ” Boteilho said.

Turns out, one of the cattle had run past him, probably just as scared as the man, and likely blew foamy snot on him as it ran past.

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What’s the new exhibit being worked on at the Clark County Museum?

Courtesy of Clark County

The 1966 Candlelight Wedding Chapel will open as an exhibit at the Clark County Museum on Nov. 14, 2009, to help celebrate Clark County's centennial.

Quickie weddings are so much a part of Clark County’s history that they will soon have their own place at the museum, at 1830 S. Boulder Highway in Henderson.

How’s that?

“One of the highlights of the county’s centennial celebration this year will be the opening of the newly restored Candlelight Wedding Chapel” at the museum, county spokesman Erik Pappa said this week.

For the opening on the night of Nov. 14, museum staff are looking for couples who were married at the chapel in its pre-museum life. Anyone who was married there will get a free souvenir picture in front of the chapel.

County staff are hoping they might even be able snag an appearance by one or two of the celebrities who were married at the chapel. Some — such as Barry White and “The Lone Ranger” Clayton Moore — are dead, unfortunately. But there are plenty of others who were married at the chapel who are still around, including Whoopi Goldberg and Michael Caine. The county’s best bet, however, is probably Strip headliner Bette Midler.

The celebration will also include free admission to the museum and the added bonus of live music and refreshments.

“It’ll be like a block party on Heritage Street, where we have a lot of historic buildings,” Pappa said.

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How are the county’s stimulus money Web pages doing so far?

The county’s effort to keep taxpayers informed about how much stimulus funding it has received and how that money is being spent (the link is on the front page of the county site at accessclarkcounty.com) is drawing some attention. “From Aug. 23 through Sept. 22, we’ve had almost 9,000 people visit those pages and almost 10,500 page views,” Pappa said.

“This is our effort to instill some accountability into the receipt and disbursement of those funds, at least at the county level,” he noted, adding, “there’s even a page for reporting ‘waste and fraud.’ ”