EMERGENCY RISK REDUCTION

All of us have seen auto accidents, and many of us have been involved in a collision – hopefully nothing more than a fender bender.  However, we know that some accidents are a tragic — involving police, ambulances, lane closures, and tying up traffic for hours.

Although not very common, an example of this is a livestock highway rollover incident.  We may seldom notice, but farm animals move on our highways constantly – to stockyards, auction houses, slaughterhouses, new farm owners, etc. Some of the livestock are carried on large trailers or truck ‘liners’. A tip-over, called a “rollover”, can be an extensive accident site.  Consider the following event in Texas on April 23, 2014:

A truck driver from Kansas hauling 95 cattle misjudged an interstate ramp near Fort Worth at 6AM, and the large stock trailer tipped over.  One of the trailer doors sprung open, and animals began wandering around the accident scene. Traffic immediately began backing up, soon snarling the morning rush hour.  A couple of dozen animals died in the accident. Eight or nine other cattle had broken legs and couldn’t move.  The driver was ok. The truck was lying on its side, and fortunately, there was no engine fire.

Confusion ensued. The highway patrol arrived almost immediately, followed by EMS and fire vehicles. No one knew what to do next. Who to call? A bunch of stressed out cattle on the interstate to be rounded up, but how, and into what? They can’t go back into the wrecked trailer, and there’s no corral on I-35. Who has access to portable fence panels, or maybe spare cattle trailers? How do we catch animals that are spreading in all directions?

To complicate matters, the cows with broken legs can’t be moved and have to be euthanized. But how? A pistol carried by a highway patrol officer? A rifle? What is the proper firearm? Who knows how to do this safely?  Afterwards, where to dispose of the 27 dead carcasses from the accident? How to transport and by whom? Or can the meat be given to, say, a homeless shelter, rather than to be wasted? Most importantly, who makes the decisions and coordinates these activities?  All under the pressure of interstate traffic that has been detoured and slowed to a miserable crawl.

After dealing with the animals, the accident scene must be cleaned – truck and trailer uprighted and moved. Finally, traffic can resume to normal. It is no wonder that, in the case of the Fort Worth livestock rollover, a major highway was closed for 11 hours!

Needless to say, a rollover accident is complex. Some equate it to a “hazmat”, or hazardous material spill. In some ways, it’s worst, because it involves livestock and there’s an animal welfare component. The optics of dead or dying animals at a highway accident site is not attractive on the live 6PM news.

For this reason, this type of highway incident should be practiced, and responders trained. Response guidelines must be developed. An incident command structure should be implemented, with 911 knowledge of who to call — both to handle stressed out animals and to euthanize injured animals. Perhaps the availability of portable corral panels along heavily travelled livestock corridors can be inventoried. Disposal sites and volumes should also be documented. Training must be given to potential responders, in subjects such as personal safety, animal behavior, calming and capturing animals, euthanasia protocols, etc.

I am just beginning a contract for the Ministry of Agriculture in British Columbia to do the above. Good on BC to realize the importance of this. Like much of my work, it is interesting and also challenging — to  draw a balance between adequate preparedness and financial outlay for an incident which may not occur very often. But when it does, having a response in place to deal with a livestock rollover quickly is invaluable – especially if you are sitting in backed-up traffic for hours!

Thanks for reading.