Cows Wander Dallas Freeway after Tractor-Trailer Crash

A Texas tractor-trailer accident stopped traffic on Interstate 35 East in Dallas after a trucker crashed and his cargo – dozens of cattle – began to roam the freeway.

According to local Texas news sources, a trucker was negotiating a curve on I-35E near Colorado Boulevard when the cows he was carrying shifted in their trailer and caused him to lose control of his vehicle. The trailer fell onto its side, closing several lanes of traffic, killing and injuring multiple cows, and leaving the trucker uninjured. The accident took place at around 1:30 in the morning on Friday, May 24, 2012.
There were 89 cows in the trailer when it crashed. Although 17 cows were uninjured in the Dallas truck accident, about 70 other animals were injured, killed, or euthanized by a vet that responded to the scene of the truck crash. Two cows, probably frightened from the crash, jumped from a bridge into the Trinity River. Other cows were reported running down the high occupancy lanes in the minutes after the accident. A veterinarian contacted by the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department put injured cows inside the trailer to sleep.
Multiple lanes of I-35E were closed into late morning as emergency responders worked to remove the trailer and cows from the scene.
The Texas semi crash is still under investigation. The truck company that hired the driver administered a drug test at the scene, while authorities are investigating whether the trailer was off-balance or whether the trucker went into the curve at a high rate of speed.