All lanes of Interstate 5 south of Wilsonville were shut down for over two hours Sunday afternoon after a livestock trailer carrying more than 30 dairy cows tipped over — sending a herd of curious bovines down the freeway to mingle with stopped vehicles and motorists.
Oregon State Police and Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue officials said there were 31 cows in the trailer that tipped over when the semi carrying it crashed. Sadly, several were killed in the impact and a few others had to be put down by deputies and troopers on the scene due to serious injuries they’d received.
The crash happened after 2 p.m. Sunday during a heavy rainstorm and involved three vehicles. One person suffered some minor injuries.
Local farmers, along with OSP, ODOT, TVF&R and other rescue personnel, arrived to help load the rest onto trucks or trailers. The last cow — who was hard to catch — was loaded into a trailer at 5 p.m., said Heather Carpenter, a public information officer for TVF&R, according to reporting from The Oregonian.
A state police spokesperson told KATU News Monday that more cows had to be euthanized.
One motorist, Dave Tragethon, posted several videos on Twitter showing the disoriented dairy cows meandering through stopped traffic on I-5.
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.
Tualatin Valley 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.
