Woman crashes into cow on R28
The woman left uninjured, but the fate of the cow remains unknown.
Driving home late last Thursday (8 October), Christa Seidler crashed into a cow crossing the R28.
“I drove up the Krugersdrop ridge [Hillsnax] and followed the left curve over the ridge. Suddenly a cow ran over the road. I saw the cow just as my car’s headlights lit up the area. He was running towards the road,” the Krugersdorp West resident recalled.
Christa heard the crashing noise and felt the impact, but thankfully she escaped with her life. As for the cow, Christa is not sure that he was so lucky.
“I stopped the car a few metres after the impact, but I did not want to climb out. You hear so many stories about cleverly planned hijackings,” she said.
Christa then waited for her family to arrive after which she started to piece the accident together.
“I did not see the animal again, but I bet it was seriously injured.”
The impact on the front right of the car left Christa’s Ford Eco Sport with R67 000’s worth of damage at the front right headlight and because of the broken windscreen. The windscreen had a hole in where Christa suspects the animal’s horn broke it. After inspecting her vehicle the following day, Christa even found an ear, possibly of the animal, on the front seat. But she did not, however, find any blood inside her car.
“The cow was very big. When I saw it I tried to brake, but it was too late.”
Driving at 80 kilometres per hour, Christa believes that if she had gone any faster she might not have ended up not so lucky.
The speed limit on that road is currently 100 kilometres per hour.
Christa has been trying to get a hold of whoever owns the animal.
“I don’t want to create any sort of conflict, I simply want to warn the owner and the public.”
Constable Lucky Matome, police spokesperson, recently told the News that incidents like these happen because animals are not properly fenced on the owner’s property.
“Animals roaming the roads often cause heavy traffic congestion and endanger road users and themselves,” he said.
Christa said she has not yet opened a case at the police station, but will do so if it will help solve the cause of this strange accident.
Read more here:
• Man dies and several injured on R28
• Eight vehicles in pile-up accident on R28
• Head-on collision leaves one dead
