Youth cutting down fences to ride their dirt bikes on private property may have contributed to an accident in Highway 50 in Silver Springs.
A vehicle with two passengers hit a cow that had wandered onto the highway near Turf Farm Road at about 9:26 p.m. Monday.
Battalion Chief Bob Kilte of the Central Lyon County Fire District said neither the driver nor the passenger in the vehicle was hurt, but the potential was there for serious injury or even death.
"Everybody was OK. The vehicle was pretty smashed up, but all the air bags deployed," he said.
The cow was killed.
Darryl Peterson, deputy brand inspector for the Nevada Department of Agriculture, said dirt bikers and quad riders cutting fences to ride on private property are likely to blame.
He said the owner of the cow, Vince Ferrara, keeps cattle on the old Asamera Ranch north of Highway 50, but the area where the cattle are is fenced.
"Kids riding the motorcycles and quad runners, they like to ride in the hills," he said. "They cut the fences because the gates are locked. The cows come through the cut fences and they get on the highway."
Peterson said this was the first incident of a cow being hit by a vehicle on Highway 50 that he remembers but added the NDA has been called to round up cattle that have gotten loose.
"We've moved 70, 80 head," he said. "They get out about every weekend."
He said it is against the law to cut a fence and ride on private property, but neither NDA or Lyon County have the manpower to patrol.
"If anyone has any suggestions, by golly, I'd like to hear it," he said. I don't know how to solve the problem. There's so many quad runners and motorcycles out there. Unless you see them do it, I guess it would be pretty hard to prove."
• Contact reporter Karen Woodmansee at kwoodmansee@nevadaappeal.com or 882-2111 ext. 351.