Cattle from lost load on I-45 near Spring came from the rodeo, HCSO says; all steers accounted for
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- A loose herd of cattle tied up freeway traffic along I-45 near Spring Stuebner, with several steers eluding capture for hours.
The livestock got loose just before noon on Monday, with a caller reporting seeing eight cows running through traffic.
The Harris County Sheriff's Office initially said three steers were caught and there could be as many as 30 on the loose. In a later update, HCSO said only six of them actually got out. They have since been captured as of 3:34 p.m., and all roping steers were accounted for.
Video from an ABC13 photographer on the freeway shows the steers running in between traffic as officers try to capture them. Officials said these were roping cows, so they are trained to avoid getting caught.
At about 12:30 p.m., a steer was running on the mainlanes, bringing freeway traffic to a stop for safety. SkyEye spotted at least one evading capture in a wooded area just west of I-45.
Then, at about 1 p.m., HCSO reported that one of the animals had been hit by a vehicle, which had overturned. No other information about the incident has been released.
Robert Green was nearby, and decided to help law enforcement. "Once we found them, we tracked them and they started coming out this way," Green recalled. "We followed the tracks up until right about here. I'm pretty sure they ran off over here. One of them is bleeding pretty bad because we found blood on the sidewalk and we found tracks of blood throughout the woods as well."
Deputies shut down I-45 mainlanes at Spring Stuebner while they tried to get the animals safely off the road. In a 1:16 p.m. update, Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said two northbound lanes were reopened for traffic.
Authorities said the cattle came from the rodeo and were being transported from the NRG complex to Polk County where they reside.
They said the latched gate of the transport vehicle came open and that's how the cattle were able to get out.
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