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WASATCH COUNTY — A man was seriously injured Saturday night when he hit a moose while driving on state Route 40 near Strawberry Reservoir.
The 61-year-old West Valley man’s Saturn passenger car hit the animal at around 8:30 p.m., at the northeast end of the reservior, Utah Highway Patrol trooper Dale Talbot said.
The cow moose was thrown into the windshield and over the top of the car, he said. It did not survive the accident.
Dacia Jackson, a weightlifting coach from Vernal, was heading home when she saw the crash happen and stopped to help. The man managed to get out of his car on his own, she said, but was in bad shape and had a visible head injury.
“Just the whole time I thought: How is he alive? How is he alive?” Jackson said. “I’ve even hit a deer, and it totaled my car; and the deer was like … 30 percent the size of this moose. It was just a beast.
She and two of her athletes carefully supported the man's neck as they carried him into her SUV and waited for the ambulance.
“He was coherent, but he was also obviously in shock,” Jackson said. “Once he warmed up he seemed to get a little bit more alert, and his breathing got a lot more steady.”
Talbot said moose are common on that rural stretch of road. In areas like this that are prone to wildlife, he cautions drivers to reduce their speed by 15 to 20 miles per hour.
“Moose, deer and elk: they don’t care what kind of vehicle’s coming, they’re going to run in the road,” Talbot said.
The injured driver, whose name was not released, was ultimately transported to Intermountain Medical Center in a medical helicopter, but his injuries were determined to be non-life threatening. Investigators believe he was going the speed limit when the crash happened.
