um... she didn’t see a cow standing in the middle of the road?
I have been hit by deer before- they come running at you and even then the damage to the deer is much worse
$20,000 is a pittance if they really thought there was ‘negligence’ and that many broken ribs (those things hurt like all heck!) It sounds like more of a nuisance suit than anything (Hoping the lawyers say “Yeah we can win but it will cost way more then $20,000 to fight it- just pay her”)
When I was stationed Ellsworth S.D. I had to travel from silo to silo at a speed that exceeded the limit. The law was that if you were involved in an accident with a cow, on public land, you were responsible for the value of the cow, milk it would produce as well as a calf it could have had.
This woman is a scammer. I don’t believe she didn’t try to avoid hitting the animal.