Who is liable if I hit a cow on the highway in Nevada?

On open range — which covers most of rural Nevada — usually no one but you. NRS 568.360 provides that livestock owners have no duty to keep animals off open-range highways and are not liable for collision damage or injuries. Your own insurance is typically the only recovery source, unless a negligence exception applies.

Are there exceptions to Nevada's open range law?

Yes, and they matter. Liability can shift to the animal's owner if the owner negligently allowed the animal inside a fenced highway right-of-way. Whether the collision site was truly open range, and how the animal got onto the road, are fact questions that can determine whether an injured driver has any claim at all.

What does 'open range' mean in Nevada?

It's land where Nevada's fence-out tradition applies: instead of ranchers fencing livestock in, landowners fence cattle out, and animals may lawfully roam — including across highways. Most of rural Nevada is open range. The rule was codified in 1965 as NRS 568.360, which also grants ranchers civil immunity for highway collisions with their animals.

STILL THE LAW

Hit a Cow on Open Range and the Rancher Owes You Nothing

Statewide🐫 Animal LawsNRS 568.360

On Nevada's open range, ranchers have no duty to keep livestock off the highway — so if you total your car on a 1,200-pound steer, you and your insurer eat the loss. It's the law city drivers can't believe until it happens to them.

Most of rural Nevada is open range, and open range runs on a legal rule that inverts everything city drivers assume. Under the common law most states follow, livestock owners must fence their animals in. Nevada's open-range tradition, codified in 1965 as NRS 568.360, flips it: on open range, landowners fence cattle out. The animals go where they go — including onto the highway.

The statute is blunt: "No person, firm or corporation owning, controlling or in possession of any domestic animal running on open range has the duty to keep the animal off any highway traversing or located on the open range, and no such person... is liable for damages to any property or for injury to any person caused by any collision between a motor vehicle and the animal occurring on such a highway." Hit a steer at 70 mph on an open-range road, and the rancher owes you nothing — not for your car, not for your hospital bill. There is one important flip side: liability can attach if an owner negligently allows an animal inside a fenced highway right-of-way.

Unlike most entries in this collection, this law isn't dormant trivia — it's genuinely litigated in Nevada collision cases, and it decides who pays after real crashes on rural highways every year. Related statutes fill out the picture: NRS 568.370 makes it a misdemeanor to let dogs chase livestock, and herding-district violations carry misdemeanor penalties. The frontier didn't just leave Nevada its dueling laws; it left the cows with the right of way.

What the Law Actually Says

NRS 568.360

Read the official statute

Current Penalty

This one works in reverse: the rancher faces no civil liability for open-range collisions, so the driver (and their insurer) absorbs the vehicle damage and injuries. Liability can shift to the owner only if the animal was negligently permitted inside a fenced highway right-of-way. Related herding-district violations are misdemeanors.

Has Anyone Actually Been Cited?

Genuinely litigated in Nevada motor-vehicle collision cases — current, real, and routinely outcome-determinative on rural highways.

The Attorney's Take

Thomas Boley, Las Vegas Criminal Defense Attorney

“I handle injury cases as well as criminal defense, and this statute produces some of the hardest conversations I have. A family totals their car on a steer outside Tonopah, someone's in the hospital, and I have to explain that Nevada law says no one is liable. The exceptions are everything: was this actually open range? Was there a fenced right-of-way the animal got through negligently? Those fact questions can be worth the entire case, so investigate before assuming the statute ends it.”

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources

NRS 568.360 — no duty to keep animals off open-range highways (NRS Chapter 568 full text)

Verified against the primary source: 2026-07-02