Mooove over: Loose cow causes backups on I-285

Michael Gerbick was headed to work at a Marietta Volvo dealership when he noticed the brake lights ahead. At first, he figured it was a typical fender bender.

“Traffic was moving a little. Cars were slowly getting by. Then all of a sudden this cow comes running around the corner with a gentleman chasing him,” Gerbick said. “I was surprised when I saw it, but I guess it is Atlanta.”

The animal was eventually wrangled thanks to the help of a passerby with a rope, Dunwoody police said in a Facebook post. Photos taken by drivers appeared to show the cow tethered to the front of a Dunwoody police cruiser near the Ashford Dunwoody Road exit after it was captured.

“Chasing people is a norm for officers. However, chasing cows on the interstate ... not so much,” the department said in the post. “With the assistance of a citizen with a rope, officers were able to safely capture the cow and get it back to its owner.”

All lanes reopened about 10:30 a.m., according to the WSB 24-hour Traffic Center.

It wasn’t the first time metro Atlanta traffic has been snarled by cows on the interstate. In 2018, there were three separate incidents of cattle ending up on highways within a five-month period.

In May 2018, a tractor-trailer hauling 19 cows overturned on I-75 South in Cobb County. Georgia Department of Agriculture officials said 10 cows were killed in the incident.

The following month, a tractor-trailer crashed on the ramp from I-285 South to I-20 East, killing three cows and spilling dozens more onto the interstate in DeKalb County.

And in October 2019, a tractor-trailer overturned on the I-285 East ramp at the I-75 interchange in Cobb. The trailer was hauling 89 commercial beef calves, 11 of which did not make it.