Twenty-two cows were killed or suffered injuries that led to them being euthanised after a cattle truck crashed into a bridge in Melbourne on Tuesday night.
Police said the truck crashed into the rail bridge in Alexandra Avenue, South Yarra, about 8.25pm. Photos show the trailer’s top deck crushed under the bridge and cattle hanging from its sides.
Agriculture Victoria said there were about 75 cattle on board.Some of the animals had escaped from the truck, and critically injured animals were euthanised at the scene.
The surviving animals were assessed by Agriculture Victoria and moved from the crash site. They were to be reassessed on Wednesday, a government spokesperson said.
Police said the driver, a 54-year-old NSW man, was not injured and was assisting with the investigation into the crash.
South Yarra resident Kate Sheahan heard the crash from her apartment and described the impact as sounding like “a building had come down next door”.
Almost two dozen cows were killed when the truck crashed into a bridge on Tuesday night.Credit: Farm Transparency Project
“You could hear as soon as he hit the bridge, and then you could hear him try to drag the truck from underneath it … he kept driving to try to get it out,” she said.
Sheahan joined about a dozen people at the scene and saw the top level of the cattle carrier crushed under the bridge.
“The cows were mooing pretty significantly. You could hear the cows kicking against the truck for quite some time, and when you heard it, they did sound pretty distressed,” she said. “You could tell they were really freaked out.”
Farm Transparency Project, an animal rights advocacy group, said its members went to the crash scene and witnessed cows trying to free themselves from the truck.
Some animals were euthanised because of the injuries they suffered jumping from the trailer.
Group spokesperson Chris Delforce said the surviving animals should be sent to a sanctuary.
“The level of pain and fear these cows would have experienced during this crash is unimaginable, and must only have increased as they remained trapped in the wreckage as other cows were shot with bolt guns around them,” he said.
“The least that they deserve is to be given a chance to live out the rest of their lives in peace, rather than being sent to the slaughterhouse.”
Paul Salvati, chief operations officer of the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator, said it was clear that “something went wrong” for the truck driver to have chosen his route down Alexandra Avenue.
“It is imperative truck heights are measured correctly and routes appropriately planned before any transportation takes place, to avoid these dangerous and disruptive incidents occurring,” Salvati said.
But Livestock and Rural Transporters Association of Victoria CEO Alina Hawkins said “a lack of signage on heavy vehicle routes through inner-city Melbourne will be part of the investigation by police and road managers”.
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