Trailer safety

Today I was hauling 6 Jersey heifers back to the owners farm after using my Lowline bull to service them. Ours is a gravel (read bumpy) road and after locking them in my stock trailer I proceeded down it to Rt 5 and to a gas station a couple of miles away. To my surprise and horror when I looked into the trailer while filling up I found it empty and the sliding half door wide open. The heifers were gone!!
Apparently the slider was not locked shut when I left or the lock bolt bounced out and allowed the door to open on the way down my road. I found the animals about a mile back on RT 5 and semi organized by some town highway crew men and a police office who happened to be passing by just after it happened. They were split into two groups of three heifers each and located a half mile apart. The helpers accumulated quickly and after some trapping, pulling and pushing we were able to get all six back in the trailer. Cars lined up the road and plenty of willing and capable helpers made it work.
This could have been my worst nightmare and certainly was a wake up call to put backup chains on my trailer doors. How many times I have worried when delivering animals and stopping for lunch thinking about the animals and how vulnerable they are to being released by a prankster or curious child that lifts the door latch. Lucky for me I was on a well traveled road and the highway trucks with radios were in the area.
The heifers seem ok if you discount the bruises and nicks and cuts.
A lesson in every mishap, keep those trailer doors doubly secured with a redundant and backup fastening system, in my case I added chains for the next load of 6 which I took later in the day and can attest to feeling very secure knowing they were there.
Was someone watching over me or did I see a miracle? Perhaps. Consider the following circumstances:
1. I didn’t need the gas as I still had over a quarter tank and had not planned to stop but did it on a whim when I was passing the station. If I had not stopped I would have been a half hour away when I discovered them gone.
2. The places where the cows were found had natural barriers which prevented them escaping off the road sides. On one side of the road was a nearly vertical slope which a couple heifers tried to climb but it was too steep. On the other side was a guard rail and a steep drop off both of which functioned as a deterrent and guide for the animals on the other side of the road. The heavy traffic which was stopped and backed up served as barriers in both up and down the road.
3.The two Town highway trucks and police car were in the immediate vicinity when it happened and initially organized the animals before they could spread out and get too far away. And they had radios to summon help from Town not very far away. The remaining route to the owners farm was not so, being lightly traveled and with escape fields and wood all along it. Had they gotten out in that area we would be still looking for them.
4.The heifers did not cause any accidents or receive and serious physical harm themselves even though that is a heavily traveled speeding road. I was going at least 50MPH when I passed the spot where the were found.
Marilyn says my guardian Angel must be about worn out he has gotten me out of so many scrapes and close calls over the years. Some day maybe I will meet him and we can reminisce.