Excitement in the neighborhood

[Dave]

Excitement in the neighborhood today. Snowy slick roads. A cattle truck hauling a load of fat steers headed to the slaughter plant slid of the corner in front of the house. That happened at noon. The traffic finally got moving shortly before 6:00. I am cold tired and hungry. We had to wait for the tow truck so we could unload the cows. The weight of the cows in the trailer were keeping the whole thing from going completely over the hill. Once the cows were out we had to hook a D-7 Cat to the back of the trailer to pull it back up. Then the tow truck pulled the truck back up on to the road. We have several holes in the fences. A couple big rocks down on the driveway. And that narrow road around the corner is now narrower. But thankfully no people or cattle were injured in making this wreck. The truck and trailer were not so fortunate. And the driver may need new underwear. It is 30 or 40 feet straight off to the driveway. The truck was totally over the hill. The front of the trailer plowed in and stopped the truck.

 

[Stocker Steve]

Lucky no one got hurt.
How were the fats handled once they came off the trailer?
Sounds like higher shrink on this load.

 

[Dave]

Lucky no one got hurt.
How were the fats handled once they came off the trailer?
Sounds like higher shrink on this load.

A couple small square bales were broke open in the road so they ate for a while while waiting further instructions. They got herded back up the road a little ways to a spot where there is a cat trail down to the irrigation canal. There is a fence along the canal but a trail wide enough for them to single file to my driveway. Then out my driveway to the road and down the road half a mile to the neighbors coral where there is a loading chute. By now they are on another truck headed to the Tyson plant in Pasco. I wish I had taken a picture of them. They were nice looking steers.

 

[farmerjan]

WOW. God bless the driver, and thankful no one got hurt, human or bovine. I cannot imagine how he felt, thinking that trailer was going to come right over on top of him and then nothing happened. Thanks for the pics.

 

[Dave]

WOW. God bless the driver, and thankful no one got hurt, human or bovine. I cannot imagine how he felt, thinking that trailer was going to come right over on top of him and then nothing happened. Thanks for the pics.

He said that when it went over the edge he was going to jump but he couldn't get the seat belt unbuckled.

 

[Nesikep]

yikes, that's as good an outcome as can be hoped for there! Had a pot load of longhorn cows flip on my road 15 years ago, some of the cows weren't so lucky with all those horns everywhere.. was only about 2 more miles to the destination.. Driver said he fell asleep, I have a hard time believing anyone would ever fall asleep on our road, there's a sharp corner every 100 ft

 

[jltrent]

That hill looks steep to be coming up with snow/ice on. Thank goodness it turned out as good as it did.

 

[backhoeboogie]

That would be some excitement. good thing that trailer dug in.

 

[Redgully]

Ive seen a few trucks come unstuck, that driver is a very lucky guy.

 

[Dave]

That hill looks steep to be coming up with snow/ice on. ????

The road is pretty near flat. It is a sharp corner and it was slick as snot. I had run up there on my quad. The driver said there was another cattle truck coming behind him. So I ran up the road a half mile to a good straight stretch to stop that other truck. The quad was squirrely. I had to go slow and keep the right tires in the fresh snow on the side of the road.

 

[76 Bar]

Lordy what a wreck! Absolutely amazing neither man nor beast met their maker! :shock:

 

[Nesikep]

That hill looks steep to be coming up with snow/ice on. ????

The road is pretty near flat. It is a sharp corner and it was slick as snot. I had run up there on my quad. The driver said there was another cattle truck coming behind him. So I ran up the road a half mile to a good straight stretch to stop that other truck. The quad was squirrely. I had to go slow and keep the right tires in the fresh snow on the side of the road.

sounds like our road... they come plow and put sand down just before it snows, and about 4 days after it's turned to ice.. We've had a lot of accidents on our little stretch of road, none fatal, but that was just by sheer luck.. New years day a kid rolled a vehicle when the outside tires went into the mud and pulled him over

 

[Dave]

That hill looks steep to be coming up with snow/ice on. ????

The road is pretty near flat. It is a sharp corner and it was slick as snot. I had run up there on my quad. The driver said there was another cattle truck coming behind him. So I ran up the road a half mile to a good straight stretch to stop that other truck. The quad was squirrely. I had to go slow and keep the right tires in the fresh snow on the side of the road.

sounds like our road... they come plow and put sand down just before it snows, and about 4 days after it's turned to ice.. We've had a lot of accidents on our little stretch of road, none fatal, but that was just by sheer luck.. New years day a kid rolled a vehicle when the outside tires went into the mud and pulled him over

Plow and sand? Well they ran a grader over it to push snow once last year. We had about 7 inches back around Thanksgiving. A grader drove by but he never put his blade down. There is a big shed full of sand down in town. It must belong to the people who do the Interstate because none of it ever gets on the county roads. We had about 2 inches of snow the night before. Just enough traffic to pack it down that morning. And the temperature had stayed well below freezing. Some of the locals say that someone goes off our corner about once a year. This was the second in about a year and a half so we are good for another 6 months.

 

[Nesikep]

Yup, same management here!
On the other hand, it keeps a lot of looky loo city people away... we got some grade A washboard too

 

[alisonb]

This reminds me of a Canadian reality TV show I watched a time back, Heavy Rescue: 401...this is not quite as hectic :shock: but still serious, glad there were no injuries. It must have been good to get inside a warm house and have something hot to drink after that.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

took a lot of people working TOGETHER. You're a good man, Dave.