Cow Crash on I-5

agriculture cows curious pasture
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

By Savannah Eden | The Rose Cityian Rose City Live

A cattle trailer spilled more than 30 cows onto Interstate 5 near the Wilsonville Road exit Sunday afternoon, shutting down the freeway for three hours, according to Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue.

The State Police and the Department of Transportation helped firefighters and emergency crews herd the rogue cattle toward an off-ramp and into a different trailer, the agency said.

The last cow — who was hard to catch — was loaded into the trailer at 5 p.m., said Heath Carpenter, a public information officer for Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue.

The north and southbound lanes of I-5 reopened Sunday night about 5 p.m. after traffic had been stuck at a complete stand-still since 2 p.m..

Videos and photos on social media posted by people stuck on the freeway appear to show the trailer overturned on an overpass, where some of the dairy cows fell under the bridge below. Carpenter confirmed that the trailer crashed at the bridge, where its top half sheered off and some of the cows were killed on impact as they dropped into a grassy area below. There were 31 cows total in the trailer, but officials didn’t say how many were killed. A few of the injured cows were shot by the State Police to “put them out of their misery,” Carpenter said.

Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue said the truck driver was unharmed and didn’t need medical help.

It’s not clear what caused the accident and officials didn’t say where the trailer was going when it crashed.

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