Cars hit 4 cows on highway

VENETA — In a scene that must have been like something out of a Coen brothers movie, along a two-mile stretch of Highway 126 east of here in the darkness and nasty weather of early Saturday morning, four separate vehicles struck four separate cows, killing the wandering animals and causing significant damage to the cars, according to the Oregon State Police.

About two dozen cows somehow found their way from their home in a pasture belonging to Bartels Meat Co. in the 88000 block of Central Road, just south of the highway as it runs along Fern Ridge Lake. Although police said they suspected that high winds blew a gate open, releasing the cows, company owner Chris Bartels believes otherwise.

“We discovered some vandalism this afternoon after checking around,” he said Saturday night. “I suspect someone opened the gates and let the cattle out. It wasn’t the wind.”

About 80 or 90 head of cattle were discovered in the business’s parking lot, Bartels said. Since the business is about a quarter-mile from Highway 126, Bartels also suspects that whoever opened the gate must have driven some of the cattle toward the highway.

He was awakened by a phone call from the police about 4:30 a.m. and immediately drove down to the highway to discover what had happened. Bartels lives across the road from the business.

“It sickens me,” Bartels said. “I’m still shaken by what happened.”

In addition to the winds, heavy rains mixed with snow were falling, creating poor visibility at the time the cows were struck about 4:30 a.m., Hastings said.

Troopers received a report at 4:12 a.m. that cows were wandering along the narrow highway that has water on both sides of it.

About 15 minutes later, as troopers were responding to the area, reports of four separate vehicles striking cattle were received, according to state police. When troopers arrived, three cows were found dead and a fourth was later “put down” by a trooper because of its injuries.

Several employees from Bartels came to the scene to help troopers, along with responders from the Lane Rural Fire Department and the state Department of Transportation. The highway was closed for about an hour to herd the remaining cattle, remove the dead cows and tow away damaged vehicles.

Troopers used patrol cars to form a fence and contain a group of cattle on the north side of the highway. One patrol car sustained minor damage from a cow trying to escape.

One reason Bartels believes vandals struck his business Saturday is because that happened last year, when thieves opened a gate and caused some damage then, too, and also stole a pickup truck from the property. Arrests were later made in the case, Bartels said.

The company’s night watchman left about 1:30 a.m. Saturday, Bartels said. From now on, however, the night watchman will stay all night, he said.

Although Hastings said incidents of vehicles striking cows and other animals on Oregon highways “isn’t very common,” he provided statistics in a press release that said there were 292 reported crashes between 2005 and 2009 across the state involving cows, bulls, steer, sheep and other “stock animals.”

The vast majority of those collisions, 264 of them, occurred in darkness, and five of the crashes caused the deaths of six people.

Because of the poor visibility at the time of Saturday’s collisions, it’s unlikely any of the drivers would have had time to stop before striking the cows, Hastings said.

“There would have been very few options to avoid them,” he said.