Woman life-flighted after Boxelder crash

By: 
By Sandra Mudd (sandra@douglas-budget.com)
 What started out to be a promising day turned into a tragic loss for the cattle community when a wreck claimed the lives of 42 head of cattle Sept. 2 and non-life threatening injuries to a woman who was a passenger in a haul truck. 
As told by county commissioner and local rancher Rick Grant, the first truck of the day was loaded with 54 strapping steers, weighing their best at 1022 pounds each. The driver collected his paperwork and headed off for delivery. Three more trucks were loaded and headed out, as well. 
As the final steps of the sale were beginning to take place, news came in that one of the trucks had wrecked on Boxelder Canyon.
“Everyone loaded up and headed down to start gathering the cattle and help with what ever was needed. But what we experienced was something almost unimaginable,” Grant said in his Facebook post. “The truck that had wrecked was the first load, which were our steers.”
Once rescue crews arrived and the situation was assessed, it was determined the best course of action was to cut the driver and passenger out of the truck, according to Grant.  
The driver was fine. The passenger was air lifted to the hospital for further observation due to her leg being pinned in the accident, along with the presence of chest pain. According to Grant, her injuries were not life-threatening.
“Of the 54 total (steers) on the truck, only 12 head survived. What a gut wrenching sight to see, as (were) the sounds of cattle trying to get out but couldn’t and ultimately dying from suffocating,” he said. “A truly helpless feeling.”
 For Grant, even though “the cattle were sold and belonged to someone else at that point, the pride of ownership and the efforts that it took to get the cattle to this point were still a personal loss.”
A thank you for all those who helped was posted on Grant’s Facebook page, but Grant was unavailable for comment Wednesday.

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