GRAND RAPIDS (WWJ) - Drivers on US-131 in Grand Rapids found themselves in a bit of traffic trouble on Friday morning after a steer was spotted roaming the freeway.
Michigan State Police told WOOD TV that the incident occurred just before 9 a.m. in the northbound lanes of the S-Curve near Wealthy Street in Grand Rapids.
According to troopers, the animal jumped out of a trailer hauling six cattle after a lock failed on one of the doors, causing it to open up on the freeway.
Driver Bethany Patterson captured the incident on camera, as seen here on WOOD TV, which showed a young, black steer running along the roadway as vehicles moved slowly by.
Tom Murphy, the senior road patrolman for the Kent County Road Commission, told WOOD TV that he was caught up in traffic along the same stretch of freeway on a nearby on-ramp.
He initially believed the traffic tie up was due to a fender bender -- until he saw a black Angus steer running toward his truck.
"And I thought, ‘That’s why the freeway’s messed up,'” Murphy said.
Murphy, who used to raise cattle with his son in Martin, Mich., immediatley sprang into action.
“We went about catching this thing with our vehicles to make a pinch point to get it back onto the cattle hauler,” Murphy told WOOD TV. “He snuck through our trucks twice, where we had to reset up, and the third time we got him caught. … After the third try, we got him no place to go except for the center barrier wall, 131, and then back onto the cattle trailer.”
The footage capture by Patterson showed Murphy's efforts to corral and capture the animal, which took about 10 minutes.
Murphy said the steer appeared well and unhurt in the ordeal. No crashes or injuries were reported in the incident.
Murphy told WOOD TV that it's not the first time he's had to get livestock out of the road and urged drivers to stay vigilant, reduce their speed and stay in their lane -- no matter what kind of animal enters the road.
“Take care of safety first,” he said. “Don’t veer for deer, don’t veer for the steer.”