Car hits, kills cow in Fayette County

No one was hurt when a car struck and killed a cow on a Fayette County highway early Thursday morning, authorities said.

Deputies responded around 1:40 a.m. to the accident near Westgate on County Road C33. Miranda Steinbronn, 18, of Westgate, was eastbound just east of County Road V62 when the passenger's side of her car struck the cow, and her car went into the ditch, authorities said.

Chief Deputy Jim Davis said the cow was dead in the middle of the road when the first deputy arrived. The accident totaled the vehicle, he said.

It is not uncommon for livestock to get loose in rural Iowa, and sometimes the animals wander onto roads, Davis said.

"On the average, about three to five times a year, we'll have a cow or a horse accident," Davis said. "We'll have storms and they'll get out, and they'll follow each other. We herd in a lot of livestock that get out up here."

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