When I was growing up in a rural area, livestock accidents were more frequent than you might think. I knew of one woman who was killed when she rounded a curve at normal and lawful speed, and collided with a cow.

Wandering cattle are particularly dangerous to car drivers and passengers for a simple physical reason. Hitting a cow is not like hitting a wall. A cow or horse has a high center of mass because they stand on legs. They have less mass in a position to crumple the front of the car, so they tend to roll up over the hood, and crush the passenger compartment.

A local railroad also had issues with wandering livestock. Farmers would sue the RR when a train killed their cow. Although the RR had a legally better claim (ie: negligence of the farmer), the farmer usually got the better outcome in the courts, partly because people perceived the RR as having deep pockets and suffering much less damage.