Dorney Common farmer remembers ‘dreaded call’ to help cow killed after crash

A Dorney Common farmer has issued a renewed plea to Buckinghamshire Council following the death of a young cow that was severely injured in a car crash.

The three-year-old Hereford cow was hit ‘full on’ by a driver travelling along the 60mph road across the common late at night on Wednesday, May 14.  

Cattle farmers have called for a reduced speed limit on the highway to help better protect people as well as the more than 100 cows grazing day and night on Dorney Common.

Dorney Common farmers Paul and Michelle Bosher.

Farmer Michelle Bosher told the Advertiser: “I really want the council to take this seriously and I don’t want it to come to a human fatality.

“I’m scared, I’m really afraid now, this could have been just that.”

Mrs Bosher and her husband Paul, both 56, have grazed cattle on the common for decades. The Bosher family has done so since 1947.

She said cows dying in crashes with cars on the ‘racetrack’ B3026 road were becoming increasingly frequent and feared that one day a person could be killed.

Mrs Bosher received the ‘dreaded call’ to help another cow injured out on the common again this month, after it was hit by a car.

“They’ve hit the cow full on, it’s gone onto their bonnet, it's smashed their windscreen and then it’s rolled back down,” she said.

“And guess what, there was a cyclist coming the opposite way so when the cow went up and then rolled back down, that put the cyclist in danger.

The road through Dorney Common has been described as a 'racetrack'.

Farmers were able to right the cow and walk it away from the scene.

But a veterinary assessment the next morning confirmed its injuries were too severe.

Mrs Bosher said: “[there] was huge gaping hole in her back, all her legs were bruised and her stomach was bruised.

“The vet advised us the kindest thing to do was to put her to sleep.”

Bystanders at the crash scene, Mrs Bosher said, told her the cow had abruptly mounted the road.

“They [the cows] are unpredictable, people said it came out of nowhere.

“At 10 o'clock at night, when you get that dreaded call, when we went over there, the whole herd was there.

"So in my mind it didn’t come out of nowhere.”

Some of the cows grazing on the common. 

Mrs Bosher has called on Buckinghamshire Council to ‘take it seriously’ and make changes to the road - which is a short 60mph section sandwiched between 30mph limits in Dorney and Eton Wick. 

She said: “I really do think that because it’s used as a racetrack, it would benefit from further traffic calming.

“As a starting point, lowering the speed limit would be good.”

New reflective collars for the Dorney Common herds have been fitted onto the cows since the latest crash, after a GoFundMe raised more than £2,700.

“We’ve got so many people in Eton Wick who support us,” Mrs Bosher said.

In a comment issued last month, a spokesperson said Buckinghamshire was aware of the 'clearly concerning' issue and was monitoring speed limits on the common 'with a view to establishing whether a reduced speed limit might be suitable'.

Buckinghamshire Council had not responded to a renewed request for comment by the time of publication.