When black cows at night are a motoring hazard

LIVESTOCK owners are being warned to ensure their animals are secure in paddocks following a car accident Wednesday night.The accident happened after a car struck one of five wandering cattle on the Midland Hwy near Buninyong about 6pm.Buninyong Police Senior Constable Scott McLoughlin said he was the first to notice the cattle on the road near the cemetery.The difficult task of trying to herd the cattle into a nearby paddock then began."They were black cattle and it was night and you couldn't see them," he said."I was patrolling between Buninyong and Sebastopol and a couple of cattle ran out in front of me. We tried to get the cattle off the road, we don't know where they came from or who they belonged to."Despite the efforts of police and nearby neighbours, a car struck one of the roaming cows.The car suffered "moderate" damage and was driven from the scene.Sen Con McLoughlin said it was fortunate there were no other accidents because some motorists ignored police lights and did not slow down when approaching the scene."I put the car in the middle of the road to try stop people," he said."Road users need to realise whenever they see blue and red lights flashing on a police car to slow down."We put them on for a safety reason and that's what they should be doing (slowing down) for their own safety."After police and neighbours initially put the cows into the cemetery, they escaped again."We just looked up the road and there they were again, 100 metres up the road," Sen Con McLoughlin.When three of the five cattle were finally secured into another paddock police door-knocked the area but failed to find the owner.Two cows, including the one struck by the car, were not found.