Talk about free range cows.
A herd of cattle was stranded on a South Carolina highway Tuesday after a tractor-trailer carrying the herd crashed and ran off the road.
Wild photos showed a real-life cowboy lassoing a runaway cow as it bolted off the interstate and waded through nearby waters.
“In an abnormal situation [sight]Horseback riders used lassoes to capture several cows and placed them in a cattle trailer,” Colleton County Fire Rescue said. said in a release.
The 18-wheeler crashed into a bridge, burst into flames, split in two and plunged into a river near Walterboro, a city 50 miles (80 kilometers) west of Charleston. The 18-wheeler was carrying more than 35 cows.
When rescue teams arrived just after 1am, they found the wrecked truck completely engulfed in flames and hanging over the side of the bridge, with diesel fuel leaking across the road and into the water below.
Miraculously, the driver and his group escaped the inferno, officials said.
The driver was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
“Firefighters and police found several cows in the river and on the banks. Some were injured,” a fire official said.
The rest of the herd fled through the woods and along highways, sparking an intense day-long chase involving rescue teams, local vets and ranchers, some arriving on horseback.
Investigators meticulously closed off both northbound and southbound roads to corner the wandering cow, which was dark in color and not visible at night along the rural highway. Ta.
“The operation lasted several hours as the cows fled in different directions,” the fire department said.
After 10 exhilarating hours, authorities reopened the highway, but the chase was far from over, and it took the rest of the day to capture the ferocious cow, which had escaped into neighboring areas along the highway.
