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News: Using reflective ear tags to reduce the number of cars colliding with cattle on regional roads

A ROAD safety campaign using reflective ear tags to reduce the number of cars colliding with cattle on regional roads could be expanding after the success of the initial trial.

Police in the Central Queensland town of Nebo have been spearheading the trial, delivering tags to producers across the shire. With initial success and plenty of media attention, the program could be expanding with interest from other jurisdictions across the state wanting to join in.

Losing stock on roads is not a new issue and neither is the use of reflective ear tags to fix them, with one sales representative telling Beef Central he is asked about them a couple of times each year.

Nebo Police officer in charge Senior Constable Andrew Perrett said he had been fielding plenty of calls since launching the program.

“With recent dry spouts, we’ve seen cattle push through fences to get to the greener pastures on the opposite side of the road,” Snr Constable Perrett said.

“Not only are cattle struck on the roads, but property owners sometimes come across their own animals on long windy, unlit roads and strike animals sat on roadways. This initiative can reduce those sorts of incidents and look to welfare of the animal also.”

News: When cars and cattle collide, who is responsible?

A CATTLE farming couple in New Zealand was last month ordered to pay $273,000 after a truck collided with 17 of their black cattle which had strayed onto a busy highway on a dark night.

The truck’s owners took the cattle producers to court for damage caused to their vehicle, claiming the farmers were at fault because they had failed to properly secure their stock.

In their defence the farmers declined liability, claiming the steers had jumped over a boundary fence.

Their lawyers also told the court the truck driver, who was uninjured in the crash, was visually impaired, having lost an eye several years earlier, and had been driving above the speed limit and was talking on a mobile phone when the crash occurred.

After considering the evidence, which included feedback from experts as to whether cattle are physically capable of jumping fences   (some believed yes, others no), the court ruled the farmers had breached their duty of care to adequately secure their cattle and ordered them to pay for $273,000 to the owners of the damaged truck and trailer.

Who is responsible?

The New Zealand case raises questions about who is liable for damages that result when vehicles collide with livestock that stray onto public roads in Australia.

From conversations we have had with people with knowledge of the issue, the indications are that most Australian States have laws which hold the owners of livestock legally liable in such circumstances.

The notable exception is Queensland, where an old English law which gives cattle the right of way over vehicles on public roads still holds sway (more below).

Pacific Highway accident

A similar case to the New Zealand incident occurred in New South Wales in 2016, in which a Gosford man was awarded over $1 million in relation to an accident which involved cattle straying onto the Pacific Highway.

The court heard the man rounded a blind bend on the highway when he encountered the cattle on the road. He applied his brakes to avoid hitting the stock but his car was hit from behind by a car towing a boat. The accident pushed his car into one of the cows, and the court was told he suffered head, neck and psychological injuries as a result of the accident.