For nearly seven hours during the heart of rush hour, 62 cattle were roaming Briley Parkway after the truck they were being hauled in tipped. The effort to wrangle them took coordination and patience.
"In 31 years, I've never responded to cows on the interstate," said District Fire Chief Martin Hampton with the Metro Nashville Fire Department.
Hampton and his men from Fire Station 28 were among the first to arrive on scene Friday afternoon. After determining the driver of the flipped cattle truck wasn't hurt, their attention quickly turned to the nearly dozen cows that were already roaming the highway freely as cars flew by in both the north and southbound lanes of Briley Parkway.
Hampton and his men maneuvered their ladder truck into a position to help coral about 10 of the cows who had wandered away from the crash site. The men provided the stunned cows with water.
"They were slobbering and some were having tremors, you could tell they were in shock," he said.
It took crews from the Metro Nashville Police Department, Metro Department of Agriculture, Metro Fire and even a few farmers close to five hours before they were able to setup a temporary corral on the highway. It was then that the cows could be herded into another cattle truck that had been brought in. A hole had to be cut in the top of the flipped cattle truck to help free about 50 more cattle who became trapped when the accident happened.
"Cattle like to go to daylight, so if they see it they go to it. You can see they start coming out individually," said Charles Hatcher from Hatcher Family Dairy.
Metro Police initially said speed may have been a factor in the crash, but investigators with the Tennessee Highway Patrol said Monday that the driver wasn't cited.
Two cattle were killed in the crash.
