A photo of a truck that collided with a cow last weekend on highway 11.  (Submitted photo/ Lorraine Henderson)

By Nigel Maxwell

Close Calls

P.A. man T-bones cow on highway, and lives to share story

Jun 18, 2020 | 5:44 PM

Nearly five days have passed since Prince Albert’s Sedona Halkett was involved in a bad crash on highway 11, but admits the experience still keeps him awake at night.

Last Friday night, the 22 year old and his family were on their way to Saskatoon. Near MacDowall, Halkett, who was behind the wheel of the truck, was passing a semi on Highway 11 and remembered to turn the high beams off.

“I switched back into my lane and I was about to put my brights back on, and a cow was already standing there,” he said.

Halkett explained he did not have time to swerve, and could only brace for impact. The impact, which Halkett likened to the feeling of hitting a brick wall, caused the air bags to go off, and when Halkett hit the brakes, the truck skidded for about 30 feet before coming to a stop in the ditch.

“As we all hopped out, the semi was slowly going by us. It’s lucky that it didn’t hit us,” Halkett said.

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Halkett and his four passengers did a quick self-assessment and beyond some soreness and back pain, no one was seriously hurt. Police and ambulance arrived roughly 20 to 30 minutes later, and conducted their own assessment at the scene of everyone involved.

“After that we arranged rides and continued on our way to Saskatoon,” Halkett said.

Just in front of Halkett’s truck was his mother-in-law, who also clipped the cow, but only sustained a broken mirror on the driver’s side of her vehicle.

Halkett, who admits having issues at night sleeping, and has some nagging pain in his back, told paNOW he hopes his experience can help educate other drivers.

“DrIve safely and keep your high beams on at night,” he said.

The cow involved in the incident was not as fortunate as Halkett, and died soon after the crash. A spokesperson for the RCMP informed paNOW, the cow’s owner is not facing charges.

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nigel.maxwell@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell