CATTLE TRUCK WRECK CLOSED INTERSTATE I-64 IN INDIANA. THE DRIVER FELL ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL, CAUSING THE TRUCK TO FLIP ON ITS SIDE. APPROXIMATELY 20 TO 30 ANIMALS WERE KILLED IN THE CRASH
January 22, 2015
CORYDON, INDIANA — Interstate 64 has reopened after being
closed for several hours Thursday morning after a cattle truck overturned.
Officials said the road was closed between mile markers 92
and 105, as all lanes were shut down because some of the animals were roaming
the area, according to a report from news partner WAVE 3 News.
Sgt. Jerry Goodin with the Indiana State Police said 88 beef
cattle were on the truck when the driver, John Forester, Jonesboro, Tenn., fell
asleep in the westbound lanes of I-64 near mile marker 101. He drove into the
median, flipping the truck on its side. Between 20 and 30 animals were killed
in the crash. Animal control said one was hit and killed by another
tractor-trailer immediately after the accident. About nine of them are believed
to have run away.
Goodin said several dead cows were inside the trailer. The
remaining live cattle were being to transferred to another truck.
Forester and his co-driver, Dusty Arnold, Kingsport, Tenn.,
were taken to University of Louisville Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries,
Goodin said. The driver of the truck that hit a cow was not injured.
Goodin said nearby farmers were helping with the recovery
and cleanup effort and that crews were doing the best they could to preserve
the cows that were still alive and make “something good” come of the ones that
died.
Investigators are on the scene to determine whether any
charges will be filed against the driver. The truck was headed to Kansas from
Virginia.