A truck driver from Amarillo, Texas, is dead following a crash involving a herd of cattle.
Danny Ray Lovelady, a 59-year-old truck driver, was traveling west on U.S. 82 Highway on Saturday, Feb. 28, in Montague County, Texas, when his 2024 International encountered several cows on the roadway.
According to the preliminary investigation conducted by the Texas Department of Public Safety, Lovelady attempted to take evasive action but struck three of the cows.
Lovelady’s International, which was towing tandem semi-trailers, went into a side skid and rolled onto its left side before sliding into the north barrow ditch and striking a barbed wire fence.
The Texas DPS said Lovelady was pronounced dead at the scene from injuries sustained in the crash.
The crash remains under investigation.
Texas is an open-range state when it comes to livestock, but some counties elect to require that cattle be fenced in.
In response to a question from Land Line, the Montague County sheriff’s office confirmed that the county does not allow cattle to be open range.
Dangerous trend
According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, traffic deaths involving collisions with animals have increased from 89 in 1975 to 235 in 2023.
Seventy-four of the 235 animal-involved fatality crashes in 2023 occurred from July through September. January through March was the least dangerous stretch, with only 23 traffic deaths.
“Over the past 10 years, Texas had the highest numbers of deaths from collisions with animals,” the Institute wrote in 2025. “The numbers reflect the size of the driving population, the size of the animal population and the percentage of rural roads.”
In more than 75% of cases, the struck animal was a deer. Other common animals involved include cattle, horses, dogs, bears, cats and opossums.
“Among animal-involved crash deaths in 2023, 68% occurred in crashes in which the most harmful event was a collision with an animal, the Institute wrote. “Collisions in which the most harmful event was a rollover accounted for 7%, and those in which the most harmful event was a collision with a fixed object accounted for 12%.”
Although these statistics include all motor vehicles, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics recently released data showing that truck driving is one of the deadliest occupations.
According to the data, 934 drivers of heavy trucks were killed on the job last year, up from 874 in 2021. The vast majority of those fatalities (747) were transportation incidents, followed by exposure to harmful substances/environments (56), violence/other injuries caused by persons/animals (29) and falls/slips/trips (27). By comparison, the job with the second-most fatalities, construction laborers, experienced 320 job-related deaths. LL
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