An automobilist, driving his car at an excessive rate of speed along an
improved country road in the night-time, struck and killed two cows
being driven along the highway. The animals were walking, one behind the
other, in or near the wheel track on the side of the road on which they
belonged. The machine, after striking the leading animal, skidded and
struck the other cow, killing her instantly and casting her dead body, a
distance of 57 feet. The driver admitted he was going "about" 25 miles
an hour; and the Court comments: "The result of the catastrophe indicate
rather strongly that he underestimated his speed."
The Vermont case of Bombard v. Newton, 111 Atl. 510, is based on this
occurrence, and was instituted by the owner of the animals to recover
damages for their negligent killing. The Court held that the right to
drive an automobile along a public highway is not superior to that to
drive cows along the highway. "The parties," states the opinion, "had
equal and reciprocal rights to the use of the road, and each owed the
other the duty of so exercising his own right as not to interfere with
that of another.
The fact that it was in the night-time affected the rights of the
parties only as it bore upon the amount of vigilance each was bound to
exercise. The fact that the defendant was operating an automobile, an
instrumentality whose capacity for harm is well exemplified by the
results in this case, and the fact that the plaintiff was driving cows,
animals whose viatic vagaries have come to be known of all automobile
drivers, were conditions affecting merely the degree of care required of
the parties respectively."