A truck driver hauling a trailer filled with 127 cows took a ramp too fast Friday morning, police said, tipping the trailer and snarling traffic at the Interstate 65 and Interstate 80/94 interchange for much of the day.
One cow died at the scene, one had to be euthanized and two others were injured, according to Sgt. Glen Fifield, public information officer for Indiana State Police’s Lowell Post.
The truck driver, who wasn’t hurt, was cited for speeding too fast to avoid a collision, Fifield said. No other vehicles were involved.
The crash happened around 8 a.m. when the truck driver, coming from Fair Oaks Farms, was northbound on I-65 and got on the ramp for westbound I-80/94, Fifield said.
The driver was going at “too high of a speed and lost control there and rolled over,” he said, adding the suggested speed limit for the entrance ramp is 45 mph.
The cows “were essentially trapped” in the trailer, which Fifield said was good news; the trailer didn’t split or break open and dump farm animals all over the interchange.
“It has happened,” he said, adding that cows and pigs have been released onto highways in the past when trailers broke open.
A farmer trucked a makeshift corral to the site so the cows could be safely unloaded and kept together until another trailer arrived, Fifield said, adding none of the cows wandered into traffic.
The wreck caused “miles of backup” during rush hour, Fifield said, as traffic was diverted north to the Indiana Toll Road and off of I-65 at Ridge Road or 61st Avenue.
While the trailer was towed off the ramp by early afternoon, Fifield said crews were still cleaning up oil, transmission fluid and the like. He expected the interchange to open again by 4 p.m. Friday.
State police, Fifield said, have handled similar crashes before.
“It isn’t our first rodeo,” he said.
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