It was a highway rescue of a different kind on Friday when a liner holding 130 head of cattle went off Highway 16 near Cluculz Lake.
The mishap occurred at about 4 p.m. and barely a half-hour after they were put into the liner for a trip to a feedlot in Alberta following an auction at the B.C. Livestock Producers Co-op stock yard in Vanderhoof.
Mike Pritchard, the stock yard's manager, said he got the call about five minutes after the crash had occurred and by the time he arrived, about a 25-minute drive later, police and flaggers were on the scene conducting traffic control.
With the help of social media, a call out was issued to anyone with a stock trailer or portable panel to either transport or contain the livestock as they were extracted from liner - and plenty responded.
"That was the whole goal - keep them in the liner until we can get everything in place so that we can transport them out of there," Pritchard said. "So once that was in place, it was more orderly, just trying to cut them out and keep them coming out of the trailer."
In all, 91 survived the crash and a further three remained unaccounted for as of Monday afternoon. Of those that did survive, 74 were in good health while another 17 were being monitored after suffering various injuries.
It took until about midnight to clear the scene and have all the animals transported back to Vanderhoof.
If there was a saving grace, it's that they were light calves weighing 330 to 490 pounds, less than half what a full-grown steer can weigh.
"Light calves are a bit more resilient than bigger animals because they're lighter and so they don't have the weight," Pritchard said. "And the other issue is they don't block exits so you can actually move them."
Pritchard speaks from experience, having dealt with a similar incident about 20 years ago near Cranbrook but involving significantly heftier livestock that were being transported to the United States for slaughter.
"You can't move them. They're 1,400 pounds, 1,300 pounds and they take up a much bigger space and so if they go down in the liner and it's rolled over, they're blocking the exit."
Pritchard said any losses incurred will be covered by insurance and the livestock that did survive will likely be auctioned off again in Vanderhoof by the insurance company as it seeks to recoup its losses.
Precisely what caused the crash was not known, although it did occur as the light was fading and about a third of the way down Cluculz Hill, a section of the highway that has been the scene of plenty of accidents in the past.
