Posted on 12/14/2004 2:32:45 PM PST by Tarpaulin
LOGAN, Utah - A rancher who authorities allege habitually lets his cattle run loose was arrested for manslaughter after a woman was killed in an accident involving one of his steers, police said.
An arrest warrant alleges that Darrell Kunzler, 69, has demonstrated a 30-year pattern of failing to properly contain his livestock, despite repeated requests by law enforcement.
The warrant cites 31 police reports from the last four years regarding Kunzler's stray cattle, including five collisions involving cows that escaped from the field onto the highway.
"It would have to be outrageous before we felt like it was appropriate to file charges like this," prosecutor Scott Wyatt said. "There have been a lot of cattle-car accidents in this valley, and none of those rise to a level of a crime. It's just when there's complete disregard."
Kunzler was arrested Monday and charged with one count of criminal homicide-manslaughter in the death of Kimberly Johnson of Auburn, Wash., a 40-year-old mother of six who was killed Nov. 27 after hitting one of his cows. He faces other misdemeanor charges as well.
There were no skidmarks on the highway leading up to the point of impact, suggesting that Johnson never saw the black animal.
The warrant said troopers have complained to Kunzler in the past, but he made remarks to the effect, "I don't care if my cows are hit by cars. I make more money claiming them on my insurance than selling them at the auction."
An unidentified woman who answered the phone at Kunzler's residence declined comment.
Yep. Seen them in west Texas years ago. Arizona and New Mexico too.
I don’t know if I’m correct, but at the time I thought most of the open range land had something to do with Indian reservations… sure seemed to at the time.
And no, if you smack their cow on open range and kill yourself you aren’t getting anything. If they want to be a-holes about it they can take you to court for hitting their cattle.
I remember a case years ago on “The People’s Court” back when old Wapner was the judge. Some dope had hit a cow and was suing him for $3,000. When it came to the defendant’s turn he just said “It’s open range land.”
Old Wapner acted like the guy was nuts. Went to recess and came back saying he’d looked into it and sure enough it was open range land. He claimed he’d never heard of such a thing before. Ended up ruling against the plaintiff and giving the defendant $600 on his countersuit, the way I remember it.
In Texas all counties used to be open range. Now we have local option on that issue. Even in "opne range" counties livestock has to keep off of Federal and State numbered highways.
"Open Range" is a land designation, not a law.
This rancher is toast if the collision occurred off of "open range". Which I am assuming it is or LE wouldn't be enforcing it.
His fences are in disrepair and he is (possibly) too old to fix them himself and too cheap or too broke to pay to have it done, so his cattle are frequently on the highway and now six kids are orphans and the deputies that had to clean up the highway fatality are sick and angry about it.
He's not going to have a ranch left after the civil wrongful death suit, since he has a lengthy history of negligence documented by the sherrif's dept.
It'll dip down cool at night but the road will still be nice and warm. The cows will lie down in the road and you generally won't notice them until you're about to hit them.
Over the years I've read articles about at least a half-dozen motorcyclists that dug in that way...
Yup, here in Utah it is marked "open range" if it is. By the sounds of it, in this case it ain't.
By the title of the thread alone I can tell she was NOT driving a SUV.
Sounds like udder disregard for the law!
Incidentally, when you're in open range territory, that law is "fence out" not "fence in."
Maybe the highway department ought to be responsible to fence out those pesky animals (that we eat) in order to protect those fun-lovin' motorbike riders.
Isn't it up to the government to protect us all from ALL possible hazards? That's why we wear lapbelts and helmets, right?
I have some land designated open range, and I still have a maintained fence near the state highway just for common sense safety to both cattle and cars, but there's no fence on the backside, and it's definitely drive at your own risk on those county roads. Of course, the county roads out this way see maybe one or two old farm trucks a day max, so it's not an issue.
There's not much open range left, but it is fun to drive through unfenced country when I find it.
What about the DEER that are all over the place. Last year TEN people here in IA alone were killed by hitting deer along with 9 million in car damage! (We all pay for that when you pay your car insurance.) Why don't they thin down the deer herds by allowing more hunting???
No, can't do that... deer are such good natural animals the enviromentalists can't allow such a thing...
About a month ago there was a report in Arizona of a woman who was killed when she hit a wild horse. :(
That's a good point. We still have to be careful because the wild animals don't respect fences. A deer can do a lot of damage, I'd hate to think what a horse would do.
Between the headline and this paragraph there appears to be some confusion on the reporters part over the gender of this animal.
He's out of the ranching business one way or the other.
and I don't care if they lock him up and throw away the key.....after they take everything he owns and gives it to the woman's family
Horses are bad because they’re big and heavy and taller than most cars. You’ll basically hit their legs and that leaves the rest of the body to come through the windshield. That’s not so good.
People used to claim that a horse would tend to rear up before being hit. I don’t know about that, but saw a Kenworth cabover that hit a horse. It appeared like he’d reared up considering how high the damage was.
I was driving a conventional Peterbilt through eastern Oregon one night. Cruising along about 75 when I hit an owl (I guess – there were feathers and stuff embedded in the glass). It hit pretty-much dead-center between the driver/passenger windshields and right where the roof joins up with them. It peeled about 20” of the roof back along with taking out the passenger windshield and shattering the driver side windshield.
It’s sort of hard to anticipate things like that happening out of the clear blue sky. Heck of a scare too.
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