HENRY COUNTY, Ga. — A Henry County woman says she could have been killed after hitting a cow standing in the middle of the road with her car late at night.
Ziya Coleman told Channel 2′s Tom Jones that it’s too dark to see on the road where the cows wander.
The woman told Jones that she swerved to avoid one cow in the middle of the night, but missed another because of how dark it was, leaving her car damaged.
Neighbors in the area tell Channel 2 Action News that cows and bulls roaming the roads around the county are creating a safety hazard for drivers.
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Coleman said something has to be done to corral the animals before someone gets seriously hurt, or killed.
“I’m grateful to God that I’m still here today,” Coleman said.
While Coleman was injured, getting cuts and bruises after hitting the cow on the road, she said she didn’t think it caused much damage to her car.
Then she got outside to take a look.
“Once I got out of the car and I realized how bad of an impact that it made, I just couldn’t believe it,” Coleman told Channel 2 Action News.
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Coleman was on her way home from work on Rex Road around 3 a.m. on Sunday.
She said she swerved to miss the brown cow, but a black cow was in another lane.
“The second lane there was the black cow,” Coleman said. “With it being dark like that, there is no way for you to see.”
She slammed into the cow in the dark.
Showing the car’s damage to Jones, she said you could still see the cow’s hair on her car, and that there was even a third cow out there that night.
Coleman’s family said there are three farms nearby. They asked each one if they own the animals.
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“One farm is telling us it may be the other farm,” Coleman said. “Just giving us the runaround.”
A day after she hit the cow, Coleman’s family recorded a video of a cow that had been hit by a train. Coleman says it’s a safety hazard, and police need to do more.
“My life was on the line,” Coleman said.
Police told Jones that animal control tried to find the animals the night of the incident but couldn’t. Officers say other animals have been reported in nearby Clayton County.
Coleman said there’s no way cows should be roaming the roads, especially at night.
“No, people can die like that,” Coleman said.
Henry County police say its animal control officers are working to find out where the animals come from and who owns them.
Meanwhile, Coleman is a college student about to graduate, and now she’s left without a car and unable to afford a new one.
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