Cows on I-285: The internet reacts to Atlanta’s latest bizarre traffic jam

Moove along—nothing to see here

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Cows I-285 Atlanta interstate accident
This screenshot from a YouTube video posted by 11 Alive shows cows running outside a SunTrust Bank this morning.

Screenshot via 11 Alive/YouTube

When a tractor-trailer filled with cattle flipped on I-285 early this morning, releasing dozens of animals out onto the interstate and surrounding area, it wasn’t the first time cows had been unleashed onto an Atlanta interstate. Heck, it wasn’t even the first time this year. But this incident was larger than the accidents that released cows onto I-75 in May and I-285 in June—89 cows were on the truck when it flipped around 3:30 a.m. in a multi-vehicle crash on the 285 East ramp to I-75. WSB-TV reported around 8 a.m. that 7 had been killed (this number was later upgraded to 11) and dozens were still on the loose, hours after the accident. The driver was injured and taken to the hospital.

https://twitter.com/SteveGWSB/status/1046672463319502848

https://twitter.com/MarkArum/status/1046690282656485376

Cows were spotted near the Chattahoochee River, and the AJC reported that one cow on I-75 near Cumberland Boulevard charged at the crew trying to rescue it. Two cows were caught at the SunTrust Bank on Northside Drive near I-285.

At around 9 a.m., WSB-TV’s Steve Gehlbach reported 24 cows were rescued from the back of the truck, meaning that fewer were on the loose than previously reported.

The Georgia Department of Transportation kept Atlantans updated on the situation through social media, showing where Cobb County firemen sawed off the back of the trailer to rescue the cows still trapped inside, as well as “real cowboys” wrangling the animals into trailers.

Around 11:40 a.m., crews finally got the tractor-trailer upright.

Crews continued to clean up the scene of the crash and round up the lost cows throughout Monday afternoon. And while the situation was certainly sad, many still took to social media with the typical lightheartedness that follows an unusual traffic jam, complete with terrible puns and Chick-fil-A references.

Oh, and as usual, someone made a Twitter account for one of the escaped cows, @AtlNot.

According to the AJC, 11 cows were killed in the accident and by 4 p.m., all but one had been captured.

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