I THOUGHT I WAS D:-EAD..! – YOUNG DRIVER SURVIVES TERRIFYING NIGHT CRASH AFTER A HERD OF COWS WANDERS ONTO SOUTH COAST HIGHWAY NEAR ALBANY.
WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES
A young driver has been left shaken and several cows dead after a horrific crash at night on South Coast Highway near Albany, when a heard of cattle were roaming freely on the busy stretch of road.
Seven cows died in the collision on Sunday night, with the people first on the scene dealing with an extremely graphic situation.
The driver, 19-year-old Hervic Declarador, emerged from the frightening incident unscathed but was devastated about the harm to the animals and the write-off of his two-week old car.
Mr Declarador was driving from Denmark to Albany at about 10pm when he was blinded by a passing car with their high beams on as he passed through Marbelup.
After flashing the car a few times to indicate they should turn their lights off, he rounded the corner and found himself less than 15m from a large herd cows.
The frightening crash happened at about 10pm on the busy highway between Albany and Denmark.
“I didn’t have time to react. I just couldn’t even break. It just exploded,” he said.
“All these airbags and stuff came up in my face and ringing in my ears.
“Everything went black and I thought I was dead for a couple of seconds, but I checked myself, if my arms were broken or if my legs were broken and I was completely fine.
“When I opened the door it was really stiff — I thought it was just going to be a big dent because I didn’t really feel the impact in inside with the airbags — but when I stepped out, there was a cow on the ground looking at me with tears in her eyes and I realised what had happened.”
Hervic Declarador bought his car only two weeks ago.
Mr Declarador had hit a herd of about 30 cows that had strayed from a nearby property after a fallen tree knocked down a fence.
Great Southern Police Superintendent Jon Munday said officers were called to the scene shortly after the incident.
“Four of the cows were killed by the impact of the crash and three were injured so our officers euthanised them at the scene,” he said.
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“It appears it was an accident in terms of the tree falling on the fence and the cattle getting out but that is a matter for the City of Albany to investigate.”
Mr Declarador, who despite his young age is an experienced driver and has a heavy-rigid driving license for work, said seeing the aftermath of the situation was scary.
“Looking at the cows afterwards, it was carnage,” he said.
Several of the dead cows remained on South Coast Highway on Monday morning.
“There was another three dead cows on the side of the road, and one of the cows got flung into the fence on the left side.
“I don’t know what the injury was, but she just sat there for a little bit, breathed really heavily, and then tried to move then sat back down.
“It was pretty scary and sad.”
The teenager’s car is a write-off.
His car, a 2023 Izuzu D-Max he had bought only 13 days earlier was a “complete write-off” but thankfully was fully covered by insurance.
Several of the dead cows remained on the side of South Coast Highway on Monday morning.
The City of Albany confirmed it was investigating the incident “with the parties involved”.
