Firefighters Herd Cows From Calif. Highway

March 27--In a wet, chaotic scene in the pre-dawn darkness Tuesday, a delivery van plowed into a herd of 39 cows that had roamed onto River Road, killing at least one of the animals and perhaps injuring a half-dozen others.

The mayhem prompted a two-hour herding effort by CHP officers, firefighters, sheriff's deputies and passers-by.

The CHP shut River Road at Olivet Road from about 3:35 a.m. until 5:40 a.m., when the cows finally were herded to safety and the dead animal removed, CHP Officer Jon Sloat said.

The black-and-white Holsteins escaped from Ocean View Farms nearly four miles away at Mark West Station Road.

Dairyman Marvin Nunes said the heifers appeared to have trampled through a barbed-wire fence, shearing off wood posts six-inches thick.

"Something spooked those heifers," Nunes said.

Nunes' crews noticed 39 of the 91 cows in that pasture were gone at about 7 a.m.

CHP officials said the animals appeared to have slipped through a break in the fence near River and Woolsey roads. A delivery van traveling west on River Road came upon the animals at about 3:20 a.m., according to witnesses.

The van hit several of the Holsteins and kept going, Sloat said.

Several drivers called to report the incident and stopped to help. Forestville firefighters, six CHP officers and a few Sonoma County sheriff's deputies also helped round up the animals.

The van driver,who has not been identified, later called the CHP.

Nunes' crews had been searching for the cows when a neighbor called at about 8:30 a.m. and told him about the collision.

"They ended up clear past Olivet, it was just unbelievable," Nunes said.

CHP officials said two cows had been killed in the collision, however Nunes said he knew only of one severely injured animal that had been euthanized. Many of the 34 cows he collected had bumps and scrapes, either from plowing through the barbed wire fence or colliding with the van.

Four cows were still missing, Nunes said.

Later Tuesday, a car traveling on Highway 1 near Jenner came around a blind curve and hit a cow in the roadway.

The driver wasn't hurt, but traffic was directed around the injured animal until it could be moved, the CHP reported.

That stretch of coast is considered free range and cows aren't restricted from wandering onto the coast highway.

Copyright 2012 - The Press Democrat, Santa Rosa, Calif.