On August 1st, the news of 16 yaks being hit and killed by a large truck in Gahai Town, Gannan Prefecture, Gansu Province, made it to the top trending topics on August 3rd. Some netizens expressed that typically only one or two yaks are hit and killed, so an incident where so many are killed at once is extremely rare.
A video was shared by a netizen from Gahai Town, Gansu Province, showing the scene of the incident located about 50 kilometers south of Luchu County in southern Gansu. In the video, a dozen dead yaks were scattered on the roadside with a grassland in the background, while a large truck was parked in the distance. The video caption read, “So many yaks hit, how much compensation will be required, the front of the truck is deformed…”
According to the traffic police in Luchu County, the incident occurred around 6 a.m. on the 1st of January. It was still dark at that time, and there were a total of 32 yaks. The large truck hit and killed 16 yaks, while several others were injured, with some breaking their legs.
Regarding compensation, the police mentioned that the truck was fully insured, and currently, the compensation issue is being negotiated by the insurance company. In previous similar incidents of vehicles hitting cows, it was usually settled on how much each cow is worth in compensation, and then the responsibility for dead cows would be dealt with by their owners. Currently, the market price for a yak in the area is around 6000 yuan.
As for why so many yaks were hit this time, the police explained that three different nomadic herdsmen from elsewhere bought the pasture here and, in the early hours of the morning when they were moving the pasture, the accident occurred when the yaks crossed the road.
In response to this, some netizens questioned if the truck was driving too fast. A netizen named “Shan Xiaholan a0” commented, “The truck driver was driving at a breakneck speed, today, even a cement tanker is faster than a small car on the Fourth Ring Road!”