Cows on the road

[Benthejockey]

Had a busy day yesterday left the house at 6, drove to Whitchurch, Market Drayton, Hamilton Race course and back again. Clocked up about 600 miles. Driving back down the A53 at 1 in the morning sipping away at my red bull, singing along to the radio and met a large herd of young cattle trotting towards Shawbury for a kebab. I had to do a double take as I wasn't sure I wasn't so tired I was hallucinating to start with! Even at that time of night it's a busy road and I managed to stop a couple of cars to block the road and got round the cows and drove them back the way they'd come until I found a gated farm drive and drove them in there and locked them in and reported it to the police incase the farmer thought they'd been nicked and rang the police. Half an hour later I was on my way home feeling good with myself for getting the cows off the road safely. And put a post on Facebook incase friends in Shawbury knew who's cows they were. I noticed the little bull was a really smart little type. Some how a few had managed to get out from where I'd shut them possibly let out by the people who's track it was who knows. Any way I got a message off someone this morning who had seen my post and live over that way some pollock had flattened the little bull this morning about 8am. Gutted for the farmer. It was hit on a straight bit of road just outside of a 40 limit. I struggle to understand how you can miss 1 ton of little black bull stood in the middle of a straight road!

Edited September 6, 2017 by Benthejockey

[scotslad]

This is going to sound bizarre but I'm pretty sure cows/hoofs have the right of way over traffic, even when they have escaped

[Benthejockey]

There's probably some right to drove stock and possibly ancient grazing laws that allow for stock to be grazed on verges. It's the countryside so you do expect to see stock out occasionally. I wasn't bothered to see them out on the road I was more aggrieved by whoever ran into the poor old bull this morning! Just the emotional impact for all parties will be huge never mind the financial.

[AVB]

Reminds me of my time living in india. Was a common occurrence to be driven at high speed along a road (optional to have lights on at night) only to encounter a herd of cows ambling along the 'wrong' side of the road. Cue evasive action from my driver!

[welsh1]

My father in law was driving into his village and the cows were crossing from one field to the other, they think a rat spooked them and they stampeded toward his car, he went backward as fast as he could, ended up in the ditch on the side of the lane and the cows wrecked the other side of his pristine sierra(he was a car valeter by trade ,and a dam good one).

The farmer was great, and his NFU insurance sorted things out very quickly,my FIL always used to say he was amazed how fast them cows could blinking run.

[Benthejockey]

I wasn't there so I can't be sure but I'd guess it was someone going too fast or texting and couldn't stop in time. It was hit coming out of a 40 into a 60 on a fairly straight bit of road. They were a steady bunch even in the dark last night.

[Rimfireboy]

It's a shame that. There's a cow on my street,she lives a couple of doors away. Always seems to be wandering about aimlessly mooing and generally being a cow. That's what I've heard anyway. I don't have any interest though. This thread about cows on the road just made me think about her,that's all.

[100milesaway]

If the driver hit the bullock his vehicle would have sustained a fair bit of damage.In heavy traffic on the Motorway near Bury a few years back ,I had the misfortune of crashing into a large sheep when i was in the outside lane , with nowhere to go I managed to get my speed down to about 50mph but still clouted the unfortunate sheep.I had to then get across 3 lanes of traffic to the hard shoulder and found about £4,000 worth of damage. My insurance company told me that if i could find the sheep's owner i may be able to claim off him rather than my own insurance. There followed a very unpleasant afternoon foraging through a skip at the motorway depot to find the sheep's ear tag. this disclosed that the sheep was born on a farm in cheshire but the farmer said he had sold it at market years ago. End result a claim off my own insurance.... from Auntie.

[scotslad]

I'm sure there was a similar incident to that on the mway near me years ago a cow got on and was hit and even thou they knew who's it was seemingly/bizzarely the driver was to blame.

 

I know I got a ####ing of my dad for driving too fast (still prob only 40mph) as a youngster on unfenced roads and came close to a cow., 1 of those blue grey's which is a hairy hill type cow (Galloway cross shorthorn??) so tend to be very dark/black with odd grey fleks not easy spotted at night if not facing u.

 

Must admit I've done similar things before on finding stock on the road, I tend just to put it in the nearest field I can find a gate too, althou getting harder as more and more roadside gates are locked now, and call in at the nearest farm but not easy at that time of night.

[loriusgarrulus]

Some friends who own a farm got a call early morning to say their cows were out on the road. Fortunatley none had got to the main road at the end of the lane and none were injured.

When they drove them back to the field they found someone had stolen the new field gate. They have put the old rusty one back on now.

[del.gue]

I used to deal with this on a regular basis in cheshire.

There used to provision on the Animals Act 1971 about liability.

Some farmers would be a pain and poor fencing would never be fixed properly. A quiet word about them getting sued and prosecuted would usually sort the matter.

But on more than a few occasions livestock would let out by poachers. You could tell by the reports that came in where they had been.