[ozzymandus]

I see some well-deserved jail time in this guy's future. A one-time accident might be different, with a civil suit instead of criminal charges, but the guy has a history of not maintaining his fences and bragged about it to a cop.

A friend of mine, (now deceased) plowed into a herd of cows that had gotten away from a sale barn one night. He killed seven of them, and his pickup looked like a bomb had gone off inside it. The radiator was mashed onto the engine, and the cab was sheared off level with the dashboard. The driver didn't get a scratch.

I was in a car that hit a horse one late night. That was scary. The horse very nearly came through the windshield. The worst part was that the collision didn't kill the horse, and the cops had to shoot it.

[festus]

There were no skidmarks on the highway leading up to the point of impact, suggesting that Johnson never saw the black animal.

Or the vehicle had anti-lock brakes.....

[farmfriend]

Rights, farms, environment ping.
Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from this list.
I don't get offended if you want to be removed.

[Delphinium]

Is it open range there?

[Issaquahking]

I came ready to defend a rancher...but am thinking that this is most likely not "open range" , so am assuming that this guy better like the colors orange, and gray. A lackadaisical attitude where life can be at stake, is just sickly wrong. Hope this family has a background in dairy, I see them getting one at a horrid cost.

I normally go likea raped ape in flat desert country, but if it says "open range", and visibility is limited by forest, brush, or terrain, I slow down to about fifty five or sixty. Even then I've had to do "evasive actions", to avoid a close encounter of the worst kind.

[shoalcreek5]

A few points to ponder.
1. UDOT plans for highway development in the area apparently included putting up a fence--or at least supplying fencing materials for the local ranchers to put up a fence. This indicates that it was at least partially UDOT's responsibility to fence in this area.
2. What the rancher may have said to the officer is probably taken out of context. If he were trying to console himself over the loss of an animal and just did it out loud by saying what he said, the officer may have mis-interpreted it or only heard part of what he was saying.
3. None other than Darrell Kunzler himself has been in UDOT planning commission meetings trying to get them to fence along that very highway, which indicates that he may have had no legal right to erect a fence along the UDOT right-of-way. Based on what he has said and has been noted in these meetings, Kunzler has been very concerned about cows on the highway. Furthermore, UDOT removed a metal cattle guard from the area and replaced it with a painted one (cows must be actually trained to NOT cross a painted cattle gaurd). I don't know, but this may have had an effect on whether or not the steer was where he was.
4. I know for a FACT that SOME law enforcement officers and MOST of the press outright lie about situations. If law enforcement were blaming him for something that he had no control over and if they were tired of responding to calls about his cattle, they may cook up charges to get rid of him. It has been known to happen in rural Utah fairly often (I know, I live in rural Utah and personally know several people that have been framed and have had attempted framings by crooked law enforcement--members of my own family have been targeted no fewer than three seperate occasions, all of which charges were dropped and at least one of which ended with a reprimand for the arresting officer).