LARGE ANIMAL RESCUE SKULL SESSION
September 16th

DEATH ON US-50

This problem is based on a real scenario and is presented for a "Skull Session" discussion in the Technical Large Animal Emergency Rescue Facebook Group. Location US-50 in the high desert east of Dayton, NV Date and Time August, in the morning. Incident Details While caring for horses in the back of the property I heard a loud boom. Looking in the direction of the noise I saw a rapidly developing column of black smoke. I drove a short distance from the incident, observed through binoculars that Fire and NHP were on scene with more units responding, and observed a stock trailer over the embankment that appeared to have animals inside next to an overturned pickup. Some other pile of debris, that we later discovered was a second stock trailer, lay alongside the overturned pickup. Farther to the west (up the hill) fire crews were putting out a significant fire involving two pickup trucks that had struck head on, one of those pickups towing a gooseneck flat bed trailer with a man-lift chained to the deck. I notified Animal Services of a vehicle accident with a stock trailer off the road that contained live animals. Shortly after placing that call I received a call from Michael Connell that a large animal response team was requested to deal with the animal component of this incident. The highway was 2-lane and under reconstruction. At the point of impact the highway was lined with concrete K-rails, leaving no shoulders. NHP considered the incident a crime scene given that three people in one pickup and one person in the opposing pickup burned to death before fire crews arrived. While staging at the accident scene a witness indicated that a pickup traveling eastbound down the hill towing a stock trailer lost control, swerved into the oncoming lane, and struck the pickup towing the flat bed trailer. The stock trailer uncoupled from the pickup on impact and flew across the highway, ejecting young steers, and struck a second pickup that was towing a second stock trailer. That pickup went over the embankment and overturned. (The trailer that once contained the steers is the green one, a trailer that we discovered contained seven large pregnant cows is the white one.) On observing the scene we noticed a dead steer on the highway and several steers bunched together that were slowly walking away up near a residential subdivision. We were required to stage a for considerable length of time while the human issues were addressed and the Major Accident Investigation Team performed their investigation, so the effect of summer heat on the pregnant cows still in the trailer was becoming an issue. Eventually we were allowed to address the animal issues. Mike Connell was in charge of this incident. Skull Session Questions What are your priorities? What are the safety issues? What resources do you need? Describe your action plan. Please post your answers to the Technical Large Animal Emergency Rescue group. Skull Session rules. Please post your answers independently of the answers posted by others. Please also recognize that there can be varying perceptions as to what these scenarios involve since these problems are being solved using limited information. The values of these sessions include the various approaches the participants may suggest based on their varying perceptions of the problem, so it's not a matter of someone being right and someone being wrong. Please read, think, and post your answers to the TLAER Facebook group based on your perception of the problem presented. Continue to How the Incident was Resolved Go to Skull Session Index Return to the Strike Team LRTC Page

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