runography

I left work around 6.10pm tonight and was heading southbound along the M73 as I do most nights. There has been some recent roadworks as you approach the M74 so quite often there is slow moving traffic for a mile to the M74.

Tonight the traffic was queued back a bit further and after waiting for a few minutes I found out why. I don’t know why I hadn’t noticed before, but there was no traffic at all on the M73 Northbound, I must have been in a bit of a dream. I looked further down the Northbound carriage and notice what looks like horses roaming around the motorway, like a scene from some old zombie movie, where the world has gone mad and there are animals running the place. Perhaps 28 days later ?

It’s not long before I am closer and can see that it’s actually cows, and there is an overturned lorry blocking all lanes of the M73, the carriage having slammed into the central reservation. I took a picture as two cows run past the car, my cameraphone has a time delay so I only get one of the cows rear ends, but you can see the truck across the motorway. There are upwards of 30 live cattle inside that truck carnage.

We get up close to the truck and I see the cab has bent the central reservation somewhat and the front of the cab is a bit smashed up. Just after passing the cab I speak to some of the drivers who tell me there are more cows further up the road, on our side of the M73. I have no idea how they got over the barrier but that’s what I’ve been told.

It wasn’t long ago that a similar thing happened on this stretch of road, in fact it was within the last few months. That time it was a couple of dogs running up and down.

As I finally get to the offramp for the M74, heading into Glasgow I come across the two cows that had been spoken off earlier in my night. The one on the left was particularly distressed, it would have probably helped to get a few drivers to herd them off the motorway, but I didn’t think about trying that until I had passed them.

I heard on the radio hours later that the road was still closed.