Stampeding cattle and an oil tanker collided on a rural Weld County road just before dawn Sunday, killing one person and five animals and dumping as much as 400 gallons of crude oil into a roadside ditch.
The tractor-trailer hauling 205 barrels of crude oil, about 8,600 gallons, overturned on Colorado 66 east of Longmont.
The driver, Arthur Anton, 43, tried to avoid a group of about 20 calves that had broken through a fence at a nearby beef-cattle farm, police said.
The passenger, 41-year-old Jolie Kirchner from Cheyenne, was pronounced dead at the scene. Anton was taken to a hospital with moderate injuries, according to Colorado State Patrol officer Don Nadow.
The accident woke nearby resident Linda Pyaett, who called 911 just after 5 a.m.
“It was pitch black,” said Pyaett, who walked outside to investigate the commotion. “I didn’t know what it was.”
State police, the Platteville Fire Department, the state Department of Transportation, and Colorado State Patrol’s Hazardous Materials Unit all responded.
By late Sunday morning, a half-mile stretch of the road remained closed while cleanup crews removed the remaining crude oil from the tanker’s drum before turning the vehicle upright.
Workers planned to finish the initial surface cleanup of the spill Sunday and will return in the next few days for a more extensive cleanup, according to Robert F. Kaminky, a technician with the Hazardous Materials Unit.
The future cleanup involves removing 3 to 4 feet of contaminated soil and replacing it.
“I think we’re actually pretty lucky, considering the amount of crude that rig was carrying,” Kaminky said.
The tanker is owned by Taylor Propane Gas Inc., a Texas- based company with routes in Wyoming and Colorado, Kaminky said.
Both Anton and Kirchner were wearing their seat belts and neither excessive speed nor alcohol was suspected of playing a role in the accident, state police said.
The calves escaped from a beef-cattle farm about 500 yards from the accident scene, state police said.
“Something must have spooked them,” said Vern Davis, the farm’s owner.
Davis, a semi-retired farmer, has lived on his 160-acre property near Platteville for the past 30 years.
The 9-month-old calves had been grazing in a field next to the road for the past week, he said.
“They’d never broken out before,” said Davis, who was informed of the accident by a neighbor.
By Sunday afternoon, 14 of the remaining 15 calves had been captured.
Farm-animal accidents are far from rare in rural areas, state police said.
“That’s more common than you think,” said Trooper Don Moseman, spokesman for the State Patrol.
“It’s just that it doesn’t end up in a fatality. But we have cows and horses that are hit almost on a daily basis somewhere in the state.”
Since Colorado is an “open range state,” Moseman said, the owner of the cows won’t be held liable for the accident.
