Round Lake firefighter Joe Couture comforts a horse. (Photo for the Tribune by Joe Shuman / October 28, 2007)
By Jeff Long, Tara Malone and Andrew L. Wang Tribune staff reporters
9:10 PM CDT, October 29, 2007
As three horses lay dead on a straw-matted barn floor Monday, dozens of survivors hovered in arcs around them, nursing wounds from the horrific crash Saturday that caused a tractor-trailer loaded with 59 Belgian draft horses to overturn in north suburban Wadsworth.
9:10 PM CDT, October 29, 2007
As three horses lay dead on a straw-matted barn floor Monday, dozens of survivors hovered in arcs around them, nursing wounds from the horrific crash Saturday that caused a tractor-trailer loaded with 59 Belgian draft horses to overturn in north suburban Wadsworth.
Some had bruised legs, others swollen eyes. A black yearling wore a thick bandage covering an artery that had been cut. A bruise knotted the neck of a dusty brown horse that chewed green hay in the paddock of a private farm where the horses were brought Saturday night to begin recovering.
The three dead horses, which had been euthanized hours earlier, brought the tally of fatalities to 18. Eight were killed, 10 have been euthanized because of their injuries and 41 remain alive, veterinarian Kevin Nelson said.
On Monday, state and federal officials joined the investigation, and Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran announced additional traffic citations against truck driver, James E. Anderson, 34, of McLeod, N.D. In addition to disregarding a red light, Anderson has been cited for failing to reduce speed to avoid an accident and not having a bill of lading, Curran said.
The wreck happened Saturday just before 7 p.m. at U.S. Highway 41 and Wadsworth Road in northeastern Lake County when the northbound tractor-trailer was struck by a pickup truck. Anderson lost control, and his rig overturned.
Curran said Anderson had been hired by the horses' owner to drive them from Millersburg, Ind., about 20 miles southeast of Elkhart, to Verndale, Minn., for auction. The horses arrived with numbered stickers taped to their backs, a means of identification often used at horse auctions....
