MOOve Out of the Way Cows!

Early Monday morning, October 1st, a tractor trailer crashed on I-285 near the off-ramp to I-75, causing the truck to tip over and spill out all the cows on board. The trailer stretched across all lanes of traffic, causing long delays for most of the day.

A total of 89 cows were aboard the truck; several were trapped inside the wreckage with the remaining 70 roaming around the Sandy Springs and Cobb County areas.

The Georgia Department of Transportation spent their time saving the cows trapped inside the truck and dealing with other cow-related car accidents. It took the police a total of 16 hours to gather the escaped cows with the help of local horse owners in the area.

Not all the cows came back in one piece. Eleven cows were killed after the accident from being hit by other cars on the highway. Even with all of these accidents, no drivers were injured except for the driver of the tractor trailer. He was taken to the hospital and is fine now.

Unfortunate events like this aren’t unfamiliar for the city of Atlanta. Back in May another truck carrying cattle got in an accident on I-75, leading to the deaths of 10 cows, and later on in June, 37 cows spilled out onto I-285 leaving three cows dead.

Too many cows are being killed while traveling on I-285 and I-75. Do we need to create laws prohibiting cow commerce on these interstates in order to save the lives of cows? Or does this issue not really matter considering that the cows are most likely on the way to their death anyways?

By JaneEllis Brown