Trailer crash causes single cow fatality

DAVENPORT – A pickup truck towing a trailer with five cattle crashed on Highway 2 just east of Bennett Road about six miles east of here after a tire in poor condition blew out on the trailer and caused the truck, carrying two passengers, to tip over and end up facing east. The crash occurred around 10:45 a.m. Sunday, July 25.

One cow was killed in the crash, but the two people in the truck were uninjured. The driver and passenger were a husband and wife whose names were not explicitly disclosed in reports from the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office or Washington State Patrol, though a Guy Christopher Baribault is listed as the complainant in the single-vehicle crash.

The husband and wife were heading from Deer Park to Stockland Auction when the trailer tire blew out, according to Fire District No. 5 Craig Sweet, who was among those from Davenport Fire who responded to the call.

Davenport Ambulance and Stockland Livestock Auction joined State Patrol, the sheriff’s department and the fire department in responding to the call. After ensuring the humans involved were uninjured, crews worked to free the four surviving and uninjured cattle by freeing them into Nick Colbert’s winter wheat fields just east of Bennett Road. Sweet said the driver then made a call to receive another trailer and horses to round up his cattle.

The pickup truck and trailer were totaled in the crash. State patrol issued the driver a citation for faulty equipment and an overloaded trailer.

“The tires were all in very poor condition,” Sweet said.

After making sure that the truck’s occupants were uninjured and didn’t need to be transported to Lincoln Hospital, local crews attended to a call for service in Seven Bays.

“Altogether, we were there for a couple hours,” Sweet said.