Quote Originally Posted by Gemrod View Post
I dunno Jesse. Patrolman made an interesting comment. He stated "whenever a cow is involved in a vehicle accident...the cow is never at fault"

I thought...oh oh....this is not starting out well at all......

But he just wrote a report. no ticket
That is the case in California. It is drivers responsibility to not hit livestock. Technically you or your insurance should be reimbursing the rancher for the cost of the cow at current market value. It sucks but that is the way it is. We had someone cut the locks on two of our gates into the field where our entire cow herd was pastured. We had about 20 head get out in the middle of the night and a semi truck hit 4 of them - 1 cow and 3 steer calves. The truck was totaled, as were the animals. The driver tried to sue us for negligance, but the fact that the locks were cut and because we maintain our fences and rarely have animals get out prevented that from happening. Our insurance did pay for the engine on the truck (which was based on the current value of the engine) but the drivers insurance had to pay for the loss of the 4 animals, which was way more than the cost of the engine.

If the area where you hit the cow was supposed to be fenced, then if I were you, I would contact the local highway patrol and ask for any and all reports of cattle on the highway at that particular place, or within 2-3 miles from there. Find the land owner, and contact their insurance and see if they will pay for damages on your vehicle and cite them all the reports from highway patrol. They may or may not pay, and you may end up owing for the dead cow, but it is always an option.

We had a rancher up this way that didn't maintain fences and was always having animals hit. It got to be so bad, that he was brought to court by the highway patrol, had to pay many fines, and was ordered to repair all the fence along the highway. There haven't been any animals hit since then.

I'm glad you weren't hurt. We always panic when we hear animals are out because we fear someone being killed. We have local CHP call us whenever there are cattle out in the valley. With the exception of the 4 that were hit in the 20 that were out that night, we don't have animals out. Our neighbors, on the other hand, are sitting ducks for animals being hit.