/

Farmer hit by car Sunday, returns to fair

2 mins read

FARMINGTON – Teresa Hardy pulled the shy calf from her stall towards the show ring somewhat stiffly this morning after getting hit by a car Sunday evening.

With more nudging, “Lara,” reluctantly followed Hardy’s slight limp of a lead into the ring to join four more Holsteins ready for Betsy Bullard’s judgment of the entries at the Farmington Fair.


Teresa Hardy of Farmington, at right, shows a calf while judge Betsy Bullard, at left, takes a look.

It was a little after 7 on a darkening and misty-wet Sunday evening and Hardy had just pulled a due-to-deliver-soon heifer into a trailer parked next to their dairy farm’s pasture on Weeks Mills Road in Farmington.

“We needed to bring the cow in from the pasture because it’s her first time and we don’t know when she’s going to calf,” Hardy said. Hardy had parked the truck and trailer off the road on the pasture side, which faced traffic, so she could safely load the heifer and not have to cross the road at near dark.

Suddenly, a car appeared.

“I saw him come up the hill. He must have thought I was on the other side of the road, because he veered into the ditch,” Hardy said. “I heard a thud, thud.” Hardy, hit by the car, bounced between the trailer and the car “like a ping pong ball,” she said.

The car’s mirror was lying on the ground and the driver’s side window was shattered by what may have been Hardy’s elbow.

The car’s driver, a 17-year-old neighbor, went to the hospital to stay with Hardy until she was later released on Sunday evening after x-rays confirmed no bones had been broken. Four sutures closed a deep cut on her left elbow while bruising and soreness continue to spread today.

“He thought he had killed me,” she said of the young driver. “He was a wreck. I said, ‘It was an accident, don’t let it eat you.'” She was back at the fair on Monday and showing her family’s calves on Tuesday.

As Hardy pulled the shy calf on to follow her, she said quietly, “I am very sore.”

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.