Fairview man killed in crash with cow
By Robert Stevens
Managing editor
Sept. 21, 2017
FAIRVIEW—For the second time in a year, black cows on the road near Fairview have led to a serious traffic accident. The most recent accident resulted in a death.
According to Utah Highway Patrol (UHP) Trooper Jared Jensen, at about 5:10 a.m. on Saturday, Randall Hill, 60, of Fairview was northbound on U.S. 89 between Mt. Pleasant and Fairview. Dawn had not broken yet, and visibility was further hampered by fog.
Hill, driving by himself in a white GMC pickup truck, struck a dead cow lying in the middle of the road. Trooper Jensen says the impact caused Hill to spin, lose control of his pickup, run off the road and start rolling.
The GMC rolled over a barbed wire fence and into a power pole. According to the UHP, Hill was partially ejected from the truck and died on the scene. The UHP report said Hill was not wearing a seatbelt.
Hill was not the first driver to hit the cow.
The animal was first struck by a northbound Mitsubishi Eclipse driven by
Salvador Ayala-Javier, 39, from Mt. Pleasant. A little later, the cow was struck by a northbound Honda Civic driven by Eric Aguayo, 23, from Provo. Both vehicles were traveling too fast for the foggy conditions, Trooper Jensen says.
“Other vehicles were able to come through the area at appropriate speed and avoid the carcass,” Jensen says. “Driving at a speed way too fast for conditions of the roadway was
a major contributor to the crashes.”
The Utah Department of Transportation or the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources is responsible for removing dead animals from the road, depending on where the carcass is found.
If you see a dead animal in the road, you should call your local county dispatch line to make sure the correct agency is notified.
Nearly a year ago, a similar scenario was played out on the same stretch of road but with more cows.
UHP records show that during October 2016, a Jeep Cherokee with three people inside struck a group of black cows being herded across the road after dark.
The driver of the Jeep never saw the cows and struck them head on, killing six animals immediately. The Jeep driver and two passengers all received serious injuries, and two were flown to Utah Valley Medical Center.
