DPS troopers stop wayward cow from entering freeway

A cow on the loose on a valley freeway was stopped by DPS troopers after becoming a danger to the public on the freeway.

Drivers on I-10 near the Broadway Curve around 9 p.m. Wednesday may have thought their eyes were playing tricks on them, but, in fact, they weren't.

A cow was on the loose, running in and out of traffic.

"It's night, it's dark, this is a dark animal, and you're driving along I-10 and don't expect to see a cow dart out onto the freeway," said Bart Graves.

Graves is the spokesperson for DPS and says the cow got loose near the I-10 and US 60 interchange, after the trailer carrying the animal broke down.

The cow made it down all the way to the off-ramp at the Broadway Curve. That is where Troopers caught up with it and tried to get it into the desert area near the interstate.

"The cow continued to walk towards the interstate, because of the safety issue involved the trooper fired one shot hitting the cow to keep it from coming back on to the interstate," said Graves.

Graves said the cow traveled back onto the freeway and troopers had to fire another shot to put the animal down.

He says troopers spent about 45 minutes trying to corral the cow and followed proper protocol.

Graves said although unfortunate; the cow had to be killed in order to protect the public and troopers.

"The potential for major injuries and we've seen them, fatalities as a result of striking an animal are severe. The potential for massive number of sever injuries and crashes had this gone the other way would have been more than the public is willing to accept, and then they would have asked us why didn't you respond, well we did respond and we took care of it," said Graves.

The off-ramp opened around midnight, the driver of the trailer could face charges, but so far there have been none filed.