A cow died after it was hit by a police car called out to herd it back into a Chester field

Dec 29 2011 by Rachel Flint, Chester Chronicle

AN ESCAPED cow was killed after a police car racing to its rescue crashed head-on into its legs on a dark country road.

At just after 10.20pm on Wednesday (December 28) police were called to Stamford Lane in Chester after a cow escaped from a farmer’s field and strayed into the road.

But while racing to stop the animal causing traffic chaos or being injured by other drivers the police car crashed into the cow sending it flying across the bonnet and breaking both its back legs.

Farmers waited with the distressed young cow while vets arrived at the scene, but the animal was later put-down after sustaining substantial injuries.

The police officer is said to have been shaken and hurt his hand during the collision, which police are calling ‘an unfortunate accident’. Substantial damage has been caused to the police car.

A driver, who did not wish to be named, said: “I saw the police car being taken away, all the windscreen had been smashed in, the cow appeared to have bounced off the bonnet.”

“It was really shocking to think that they had sent a police man out to help and it had ended up dead.

“It is only a couple of hundred yards from Vicars Cross Road near the golf club.

“I only saw the cow earlier in the road and had to turn around because it was blocking the way.”

Spokesperson for Cheshire Police Shelly Williams said that the crash was an ‘unfortunate incident’, saying: “A liveried Cheshire Police vehicle was responding to a 999 call when it was in collision with a cow on the carriageway.

“The cow was humanely destroyed at the scene by a vet. The officer involved sustained injuries to his hand but did not require hospital treatment.

“The circumstances of the collision have been examined by road traffic officers and it appears to be an unfortunate incident.”