‘It was like crashing into a car’ says pensioner knocked over by bullock

A pensioner has described the moment she was struck by a half-tonne runaway bullock when out for a walk in Lerwick.

Mary Thomason, 72, was watching the football at the Clickimin at about 7.30pm on Tuesday when the two-year-old beast charged at her and knocked her to the ground.

“It was a total shock, it was like crashing into a car,” she told The Shetland Times. She was badly winded and was “down on the ground for a wee while”.

“I was probably knocked out for seconds I would say, I dunna ken how long it was.”

“I was just walking along and I was watching the footballers playing, thinking it was my grandson, and my other grandson Sonny.

“I was looking towards the park and when I turned to look ahead of myself this animal came right for me.”

“I just turned my head and it was there and it hit me. I didn’t even have time to realise what was hitting me. I didn’t even see it coming down the path from Tesco.”

The bullock charged again but helpers managed to move Mary away to safety. Paramedic Niall Bristow was one of those who saw what happened and ran from his nearby home to help.

Mary was taken in an ambulance to the Gilbert Bain Hospital and after x-rays found there were no broken bones, she was released the same night.

“I’ve been very lucky,” she said.

“I would just like to thank the people that came to help me. The ambulance crew and the fire station boys were there and also all my family, and all of the kind words from people as well.”

Police received numerous calls from the public at about 7.45pm, with folk having seen the bullock in the town.

Onlookers saw the hefty animal make its way along South Road up Scalloway Road and ending up in a garden in Greenfield Place.
Police said attempts were made by officers, a local vet and the animal’s owners to put the bull into a trailer but the bullock

fled the trailer and knocked over a man in his 40s, who was trying to contain the animal. He was taken to hospital and was released the same night, suffering bruising.

A cow was brought in to calm the bullock and cattle gates were used to set up a walkway from the stone-walled garden area to the trailer.

The animal was safely in the trailer by 10.30pm.

• More on the dramatic incident in Friday’s Shetland Times.