Herd creates havoc on highway for truckie
As Keith Robinson drove his truck and trailer towards Raetihi on a dark night four years ago he collided with 17 black cattle which had strayed on to State Highway 4.
In the chaos that followed, the truck and trailer overturned, but Robinson was unhurt.
The events of that night in 2014 were last week traversed in a Whanganui High Court case, where the owners of the truck and trailer claimed damages of $273,256 against the cattle owners for not keeping their stock contained.
But in their defence cattle owners Gavin and Gwen Rowe said their 18-month-old steers had vaulted a fence and that Robinson had contributed to the accident.
Not only was he literally a oneeyed truck driver, he was also speeding and talking on a mobile phone with his wife.
During the hearing, Justice Karen Clark heard evidence from not only the plaintiffs and defendants, but also a private detective, animal behaviour experts and a fencing specialist.
The Rowes asserted the cattle had been enclosed by a gate and a hot wire but they had nevertheless vaulted the barriers.
Massey University associate professor, Dr Richard Laven, appeared for the plaintiffs to give expert evidence about jumping cattle.
He said there was sufficient feed in the paddock where they were kept, and contrary to the Rowes’ assertion that the cattle ‘‘followed the leader’’ in jumping a gate, they were more likely to find a weakness in the fence or gate and push through.
However the Rowes called their own expert Richard Lourie who declared that cattle did in fact follow the leader.
‘‘They follow the leader all right. I’ve had experience of 11 cattle on the side of a big face on a big station out of Hunterville following one another around a steep face like that and coming to a vertical slip and one after the other, I was on a ridge half a mile away from them, mustering them, one after the other the whole lot walked off, onto that slip and fell to their deaths while I sat there and watched,’’ Lourie told the court.
Fencing expert Wayne Newdick, with 40 years’ experience in the trade, said he had never seen 18-month-old steers vaulting gates.
‘‘It is highly unlikely that stock would be able to jump a standard sized, properly functioning gate.’’
If that were possible farming gates throughout New Zealand would not be stock-proof and farmers would be faced with cattle constantly vaulting them. ‘‘That does not happen,’’ Newdick said.
After reviewing the evidence, Justice Clark said the plaintiffs had proved on the balance of probabilities that the defendants breached their duty of care to adequately secure their cattle to prevent them from wandering onto the road.
The judge then moved on to the defendants’ contention that driver Robinson contributed to the loss of the truck and trailer because he was visually impaired, speeding and using a mobile phone.
He had lost an eye in 1997, but since then had driven with conditions on his licence which authorised him to drive tractor and trailer units, providing both sides of the vehicle had external rear vision mirrors.
At the time of the accident, Robinson was complying with conditions of the licence. The defendants had not established his visual impairment contributed to the plaintiffs’ losses.
GPS evidence showed Robinson was driving at 93 kilometres per hour, 3 km/h above the speed limit, and although his use of the phone was illegal, he would have not been able to avoid the cattle.
The truck’s cab camera captured the moments before impact, the judge describing the brief footage thus:
‘‘The footage shows the steers becoming visible almost without warning. They seem to just appear. Mr Robinson’s evidence was that he held on after the impact until the truck came to a stop with the cab on its side.
‘‘The incontestable facts are that it was dark, Mr Robinson had dipped his lights due to an oncoming vehicle and there was no evidence to suggest that the prudent driver on that stretch of road should reasonably anticipate the presence of stock on the road,’’ the judge said.
She awarded $187,096 to P & T Trucking which owned the truck, and $86,160 to Hall’s Group, which owned the refrigerated trailer. The defendant also had to pay 5 per cent a year interest between April 2014 and October this year.
‘‘It is highly unlikely that stock would be able to jump a standard-sized, properly functioning gate. ‘‘
Wayne Newdick