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Roaming Cows Cause Traffic Problems In Pasco

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By GEOFF FOX | The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 6, 2007

DADE CITY - No people were injured, but a cow died Thursday morning after being hit by a car on U.S. 301, south of Dade City.

The dead cow was one of about 20 that David Barnett saw roaming near the road as he was driving north on U.S. 301 late Wednesday.

"I said, 'Man, there's a hill just north of there where traffic could be coming,'" Barnett said. "I turned around put my bright lights and flashers on and called the sheriff's office. About 25 minutes later, nobody had come, so I called again. To tell you the truth, they said they'd send a deputy when they could, but they had more priority calls.

"I said, 'There's 15 or 20 cows and there's going to be a fatality if somebody hits them.' They were there in less than 10 minutes after that."

Doug Tobin, a spokesman with the Pasco County Sheriff's Office, said dispatchers often have to make life-and-death judgment calls.

"They try to make these calls with a limited number of deputies," he said. "Unfortunately, we're in a growing county, and we're not seeing the county commission keep up with the number of deputies we need on the road. It looks like as soon as [Barnett] characterized it as possibly life-or-death, they arrived on scene."

In a tight budget year, Sheriff Bob White has charged the county commission with not putting a high-enough priority on his agency.

When deputies arrived at the location between Zephyrhills and Dade City at 11:52 p.m., the cows were wandering through yards and on a nearby dirt road, a sheriff's report said. Deputies herded most of the cows away from U.S. 301, but about five ran across the road.

"We get these kinds of calls from time to time, but usually it's just one or two cows," Tobin said. "It's unusual to have that many and it can be very dangerous. Get one near a roadway and that can be deadly."

One of the cows was killed early Thursday morning when it was struck by a 1993 Oldsmobile driven by Elbert D. Graves, 43, of Dade City, the Florida Highway Patrol said.

Graves was OK, but his car had to be towed from the wreck near Lock Street in Dade City, said Larry Coggins, a highway patrol spokesman.

A resident who lives near the area the cows were first spotted told a sheriff's deputy that the cows have gotten loose frequently in the last two months, the sheriff's report said. Darrell Sellars, a farmer who owns the cows, was cited for at-large livestock, the report said. Sellars did not return a phone call seeking comment.

Reporter Geoff Fox can be reached at (813) 948-4217 or gfox@tampatrib.com.

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