A cow wandering along the Island Highway near Chemainus on Tuesday was killed after being struck by a vehicle, likely leading to the multi-vehicle collision that followed, the Island District RCMP says.
North Cowichan/Duncan RCMP responded to a report of a loose cow in the Hidden Hills area about 6 p.m. and arrived to find several vehicles involved in a chain-reaction crash, said Cpl. Alex Bérubé.
He said it appears a vehicle struck and killed the cow. Another vehicle tried to avoid the first, and several more coming from behind also made contact.
There were no serious injuries.
Police had received a report of a cow on the highway hours earlier, but it’s not clear whether it was the same animal, Bérubé said.
Larry Pynn said he was driving north near the Chemainus River bridge about 1:40 p.m. when traffic slowed and came to halt.
He couldn’t see any sign of an accident, but then he saw a police cruiser with its lights on heading south, paralleling a southbound cow or bull in the northbound lane.
“It just trotted right past me and kind of kept on going.”
Pynn said he was sorry to hear that a cow had been killed.
