Cattle on the road

[jchapatx]

My daughter was in an accident last night involving cattle on the road near Giddings Texas. The cars in front of her had hit them on the road and animal parts hit her car and totally caved in the passenger door.

Is the owner of the cattle liable for the damages?

 

[Alice]

Is your daughter ok?

There was a thread on here a while back that addressed this. I'm not remembering the ultimate answer, but what I do remember is that it's not quite cut and dried. A lot of factors come in to play...

Do a search of the board, and a search on google...and, if you can stand it, ask a lawyer (bleech!)

Alice

 

[Hawk]

The following link give a good explanation of the range laws in Texas. The short answer is "It depends...".

http://www.thecattlemanmagazine.com/iss ... nRange.asp

 

[Bullbuyer]

I would hope, as a responsible farmer and citizen, that they would want to make this right with her.

 

[3MR]

What about making it right with the rancher. The driver of the vehicle has a responsibility as well, and as a reasoning being, some may argue a greater responsibility than the animal. Thats why we have open range laws in the West explaining/codifying responsibility.

 

[jchapatx]

My daughter is pretty shaken up but otherwise OK, thanks for asking. Her car is barely driveable and it was pretty horrific having to drive it from Giddings the 45 minutes to College Station with all that blood and gore all over it. Thanks for the link to the website. I do plan to talk to a lawyer about this.

As for making it right with the rancher, I want to point out that my daughter didn't hit the animal; the cars in front of her did and the animal parts were jettisoned into her car. I don't see how the drivers could have avoided hitting them; they were black Angus on an unlit road. I do feel for the rancher as these were likely very expensive animals and he will suffer a huge loss. I guess there will be an investigation into whether or not he provided adequate fencing or not. If not, I would say he bears the responsibility.

 

[3MR]

My daughter is pretty shaken up but otherwise OK, thanks for asking. Her car is barely driveable and it was pretty horrific having to drive it from Giddings the 45 minutes to College Station with all that blood and gore all over it. Thanks for the link to the website. I do plan to talk to a lawyer about this.

As for making it right with the rancher, I want to point out that my daughter didn't hit the animal; the cars in front of her did and the animal parts were jettisoned into her car. I don't see how the drivers could have avoided hitting them; they were black Angus on an unlit road. I do feel for the rancher as these were likely very expensive animals and he will suffer a huge loss. I guess there will be an investigation into whether or not he provided adequate fencing or not. If not, I would say he bears the responsibility.

Sorry, I wasnt referring to your daughter, but rather the driver of the initial car that impacted the animal. Im glad your daugher and everybody is OK.

Black Angus or otherwise. Its called driving to fast for conditions. If you cant see farther than you can stop, you are drivng to fast. What if it had been a child wearing black that was run over. Would it be the childs fault? The parents fault? or the person whom assumed the responsibility to get behind the wheel of a 2000 lb motorized weapon. I think there would be enough responsibility to go around. Just thank God nobody was seriously hurt in this accident beyond a lighter wallet.

 

[C HOLLAND]

Good luck with getting any help from the legal system, the norm is for the owner to deny they are his cattle and he has no idea where they came from.

I had to run off the road a few years back and I called the state police about the broken down fence this guy had and all they did was put up a sign that warned of cattle crossing ahead.

 

[backhoeboogie]

It is a sad situation indeed. This is a lose lose situation for everyone. Your daughter, the cattle owner, insurance, etc etc.

What everyone needs to bear in mind is that just about every big land owner in Texas wound up with roads across their property that the did not want. They come in and divide your best pastures and you don't have any choice. Then cigarettes get tossed out windows and the whole place burns off or else some car goes into the fence and your cows get out. Then it is all your fault. Not to mention trash thrown everywhere and those plastic shopping bags blowing and blowing.

We can all be glad no one was killed. Cars can be repaired or replaced, daughters can't.

I am very sorry this happened - to everyone involved.

 

[MikeC]

There have been instances here in Alabama where the car driver had to pay for a cow hit in the highway.

 

[Hasbeen]

My Farm Bureau agent allows me to include this risk in my home owners policy as long as I stay under ten head. I have nine cows and a bull at this time but when the calves start coming in February I'll have to up the policy.

 

[backhoeboogie]

No where does it say that this incident occured on a county road, farm market road, or state highway. If I want to drive cattle down a farm market road, I have legal right-of-way, or else that is how it used to be.

Black cattle are difficult to see at night.

 

[TxSimbrahShower]

I'm glad you daughter is ok.

I have to post on this from the other side of things.

Currently the tract of land on one side of us is being subdivided. There are dozers and tract holes clearing around it. They have on several occasions shoved trees through our fence, pushed trees down on our fence, and just tore down our fence. Whenever they do this, they leave and don't work on it for several days. My husband talked to the real estate developers office and was told by a gentleman that they would pay for damages and he would make sure that they stopped doing it. They hadn't worked in a few weeks because the land was too wet, (it's just basically a big flat) then two weeks ago they showed back up and tore the fence down again. I called the real estate developer and was told that no one works there by the name of the person that my husband had talked to, I explained to the lady that if our cattle got out and made it out to the highway and got run over that they would also be responsible for the incident. She told me that it wasn't there responsibilty that it was the guys on the equipment, I asked her for there name and phone number, she said that she didn't know and hung up on me. Then I picked up the phone and called the Sheriff's dept. and got it all on record to cover myself. They told me if the cattle got out as a result of them tearing down the fence, then I would not be liable for the damages, that the real estate developer and the construction company would be, because otherwise the fence would be up and the cattle wouldn't be out. Each situation is different though.

Sorry so long.

mom

 

[3MR]

I'm glad you daughter is ok.

I have to post on this from the other side of things.

Currently the tract of land on one side of us is being subdivided. There are dozers and tract holes clearing around it. They have on several occasions shoved trees through our fence, pushed trees down on our fence, and just tore down our fence. Whenever they do this, they leave and don't work on it for several days. My husband talked to the real estate developers office and was told by a gentleman that they would pay for damages and he would make sure that they stopped doing it. They hadn't worked in a few weeks because the land was too wet, (it's just basically a big flat) then two weeks ago they showed back up and tore the fence down again. I called the real estate developer and was told that no one works there by the name of the person that my husband had talked to, I explained to the lady that if our cattle got out and made it out to the highway and got run over that they would also be responsible for the incident. She told me that it wasn't there responsibilty that it was the guys on the equipment, I asked her for there name and phone number, she said that she didn't know and hung up on me. Then I picked up the phone and called the Sheriff's dept. and got it all on record to cover myself. They told me if the cattle got out as a result of them tearing down the fence, then I would not be liable for the damages, that the real estate developer and the construction company would be, because otherwise the fence would be up and the cattle wouldn't be out. Each situation is different though.

Sorry so long.




mom

Sounbds like destruction of Private Property to me. My next call to the SO would be to file a criminal complaint for the destruction fo the fence. It wont lessen their responsibility.

 

[Victoria]

Glad your daughter is OK. I don't know what the laws are in your state. Here in Alberta the rancher is responsible. All of our animals have liability insurance on them just in case they do cause damage to a person or property.

 

[TheBullLady]

My understanding is that in Texas, you have to be able to prove that the rancher was negligent in keeping his animals in.. ie: proof that they had been out before. Of course I'm talking about the person that initially hit the cow(s). I suspect they're going to tell you/ your daughter that it is a "road hazard" and have you call your insurance company to cover the damages.

Glad to hear your daughter is okay.. which of course is the most important thing!

 

[bizybeehill]

My sister lives outside Nogales New Mexico and it is free range land. So.. If you hit a cow in the road its your fault.

 

[holly heifer]

:x We had this happen several years ago. Some prank
playing KIds or ??? opened a gate and and 3 crossbred
cows were wandering on the road about 3am. This idiot comes
barreling down the road at 80 mile per hour and hits all 3 cows,
killed 2 and we had to shoot the third one. The guy totaled his
SUV and is paralized. Our insurance company settled out of court. He got almost a million.

 

[rkm]

I was driving to a rented farm to milk one morning, it was about 4 oclock and so foggy I had to drive with the window down so I could see the white line. Dang neighbors cow was lying in the road. I bumped right into her. I didn't hurt her much but it sure cured her of laying the road. He always had a couple of cows out.

 

[Andrew]

Brought 6 cows from the sale barn the other day and three got out. About 3 miles from my place, a pickup truck hit one of them on an FM road.
The sheriff said I was responsible and that its always the cow's owner responsibility from keeping them inside the property and away from the road.
I carry liability insurance for the ranch and they paid for the cow. They were also going to pay the pickup truck driver but he filed on his insurance so my policy didn't pay him. He also was not hurt; just the truck was damaged.

Hope this helps.

Andrew