Dozens of confused cows escape and roam highway after truck overturns in Georgia

A tractor-trailer traveling on Georgia’s I-285 highway overturned early Monday morning, releasing dozens of cows onto the highway and snarling traffic for hours, WXIA reported.

It’s the second such incident this year. In May, several cows were killed and around a dozen were released onto I-75, another major highway in metro Atlanta. That incident backed up traffic for miles, and workers constructed a makeshift pen out of concrete barriers to keep the cows away from the road.

The truck that crashed Monday was carrying about 80 cows when it crashed, and some of the wandering bovines were responsible for other crashes along the road, WXIA reported. The truck had been trying to navigate an entrance ramp at around 3 a.m., according to the Smyrna Patch.

There were still as many as 70 bovines still unaccounted for at 8:30 a.m., WSB-TV reported. There have been conflicting reports on how many cattle were killed.

Videos and photos from the scene show some of the cows wandering about in the dark as officials struggle to chase and wrangle them.

The cows have even left the roadway and were out and about in the city of Sandy Springs later in the morning, the Sandy Springs Patch reported.

“At this time we are still in the area working to contain the cows,” a Sandy Springs police spokesperson told the site.

Some on social media were able to see the humor in the situation.

This story was originally published October 1, 2018 at 9:20 AM.