Wilderness Takes to the Highway

You can travel across Nevada without encountering another human, yet may come across a free-range horse at any time. It is one of the state’s peculiar arrangements with nature: civilization builds a highway, nature supplies the horses, and everybody trusts everybody else to observe the rules.

However, a disagreement over the arrangement occurred Wednesday night at approximately 11:30 p.m., and North Lyon Fire crews were then summoned to the scene where multiple horses were wandering along the highway. The horses, having apparently concluded that the road was as good a place as any to conduct their evening affairs, were not impressed by the inconvenience of motor traffic.

A Kia SUV encountered the horses with considerably more enthusiasm than was advisable. The result was a heavily damaged vehicle and two occupants who, according to reports, declined medical treatment.

Sadly, one of the horses was killed in the collision, while another was severely injured. The additional horses remained in the vicinity, presumably unaware that the automobile is a machine which possesses neither the courtesy nor the instincts of a horse.

The whole affair contains a lesson, though Nevada has never been famous for making its lessons easy to learn. The horse believes the highway belongs to him because, in a manner of speaking, it did long before the asphalt arrived, while the motorist believes the highway belongs to automobiles because the signs and painted lines suggest it.

Between these two philosophies sits a narrow strip of pavement, a 1,200-pounder of horse flesh and several tons of steel.