Wandering water buffalo named Shakespeare dies in car accident

Martin Wainwright
Wednesday September 5, 2007
The Guardian


A pet water buffalo called William Shakespeare was a victim in a collision which left two car drivers and a passenger with minor injuries. The huge animal crumpled the front of a Fiat Punto after roaming on to the A590 where it skirts the Lake District at Dalton-in-Furness. Firefighters had to cut the car's 19-year-old driver free, although he escaped with bruises and a few cuts. Two other cars, a Ford Focus and a Nissan Micra, collided while trying to avoid the debris or because their drivers were distracted by the accident.

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The driver of the Nissan was taken with minor injuries to Furness general hospital in Barrow, where his woman passenger was treated for whiplash.
William Shakespeare, who died at the scene, weighed more than a tonne and belonged to an enthusiast in nearby Walney. He had a record of trying to escape. Cumbria police said: "William Shakespeare was very well known in the area, but he tragically sustained fatal injuries in the collision and died at the scene. There will be a normal police investigation into the collision."

Expertise in similar crashes is concentrated in Canada and the northern US, where even a relatively small state such as Massachusetts clocks up some 50 accidents involving cars and moose every year.

The collision rapidly made international headlines yesterday, including an informative piece in Pravda online, which explained to Russian readers that Cumbria "is better known for its herds of cattle and rugged hill-dwelling sheep".