Cattle Truck Falls From Kansas City Overpass, Killing Dozens and Scattering Herd Downtown

Updated 23:05 UTC

A cattle truck fell from a highway overpass in downtown Kansas City, Missouri, early on Sunday, killing dozens of animals and sending dozens more roaming through city streets for hours.

The crash happened shortly before 3 a.m. on Oct. 18, 2026. The semitractor-trailer overturned on the westbound Interstate 70 curve over southbound Interstate 35 and plunged onto a car below, the Associated Press reported, citing Kansas City police.

Police Sgt. Phil DiMartino said between 45 and 60 of the cattle were killed. The truck was carrying an estimated 120 to 130 animals.

The driver of the truck and the driver of the car it landed on were both taken to local hospitals with minor injuries, authorities said.

A roundup across downtown

Dozens of surviving cattle fled the wreck. Police said the loose animals led to other crashes and a wave of calls from residents who spotted cows on streets and highways far from the crash site.

Some of the cattle walked several miles before they were caught, Kansas City Fire Battalion Chief Michael Hopkins said.

"It was a pretty nasty accident," Hopkins said.

City crews used drones to track the animals in the first hours after the crash. A private company working with the trucking firm later brought in workers on horseback to help round them up, Hopkins said.

Removing the animals that did not survive proved harder than catching the living ones, he added.

Local television crews followed the roundup as it spread well beyond the interchange. Fire officials reported sightings from Pershing Road and Main Street near Crown Center to the downtown airport area, and callers in Kansas City, Kansas, also reported cattle on their side of the river, according to local reports citing the fire department. In one neighborhood, residents woke to find several cows in a backyard and helped police keep them from wandering off again before wranglers arrived.

All cattle believed accounted for

The roundup lasted into the early afternoon. In an updated statement on Sunday afternoon, DiMartino said it is believed all cows have now been accounted for.

Roads around the downtown interchange were shut down while crews cleared the wreck and recovered the animals.

The crash happened on a busy sports day in the city, with the Kansas City Chiefs hosting the Los Angeles Chargers. Authorities said they did not expect major disruption to game traffic, in part because word of the crash and the closures had spread widely through the morning.

Police have not yet said what caused the truck to leave the overpass. The crash remains under investigation.