Witness: The runaway longhorn picked the latch on the trailer and escaped on I-83
Rhonda Collins and her family were heading north on Interstate 83 Wednesday afternoon, on their way to Knoebels Amusement Resort in Columbia County from their Red Lion home, when they found themselves trailing a truck towing a trailer containing a Texas longhorn steer.
It was shortly after 1 p.m., near the Fishing Creek exit, when Rhonda's husband, Daniel, said something was sticking out the back of the trailer. He could see the steer's horns poking from the back of the trailer. The steer was rubbing the gate's latch with its horn, she said.
Then, she said, the latch opened, the gate swung open and the steer leaped from the moving trailer.
"He rolled around a little bit," Rhonda said. "Then he got up like nothing happened."
And the massive animal, with huge horns, began trotting up interstate toward traffic, she said.
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Her grandson, Lane, 10, wanted to get out of the car to help round up the steer. Her 8-year-old granddaughter, Remington, wanted to befriend the steer - cows, her grandmother said, are her favorite animals.
The truck pulled over and the Collins stopped to talk to the driver. They told him how the steer had escaped and then went on their way.
It wasn't something you see every day, Rhonda said. "We were very amazed," she said.
Fairview Township Police were dispatched to the area to wrangle the steer.
According to a police department news release, "With the help of numerous people, we were eventually able to get the steer loaded back into his trailer. There were traffic delays in the area for approximately an hour as we worked to wrangle the getaway bull."
Columnist/reporter Mike Argento has been a York Daily Record staffer since 1982. Reach him at mike@ydr.com.
This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: Longhorn causes traffic on I-83 after escape from trailer
