A family of ducks wandered a Melbourne motorway for over an hour last night, resulting in lane closures and delays.
Yep, VicTraffic warned rush hour commuters of delays after the lawbreaking waterfowl waddled onto Melbourne’s M80 Ring Road.
“The Transport Operations Centre received calls from the public around 4.30 yesterday afternoon about a family of ducks on the M80 Ring Road,” a VicRoads spokesperson told PEDESTRIAN.
“We were able to find them using out CCTV. It was two ducks and their two ducklings.”
VicRoads then pulled out all the stops to ensure a high-stakes rescue could be carried out, with the right hand lane closed and speeds immediately dropped to 40kmh.
“The VicRoads Incident Response Service was dispatched. They then followed the ducks for a distance offering them cover from other vehicles. There was a rolling single lane closure in place from 4.45pm until 5.45pm.
“Once a safe spot was found where there was bushland next to the freeway, our crew briefly held up all Greensborough-bound lanes while the family of ducks were guided across the freeway and into the bushland near the Hume Freeway exit.”
Apparently it’s not the first time this has happened, with VicRoads telling PEDESTRIAN ducks have also recently been spotted on sections of the Monash and Eastern Freeways. So next time you’re travelling, maybe take into account possible duck-induced delays.
