Motorist: 500-pound moose 'fell out of the sky'

[May 13, 2009]  CLINTON, Maine (AP) -- Police said a 500-pound moose fell 18 feet to its death when it apparently leaped a guardrail on an Interstate 95 overpass and landed on Hinckley Road.

Officials learned of the incident when a motorist called the town office shortly after 8 a.m. Tuesday and told assistant town clerk Shirley Bailey that "a moose just fell out of the sky."

Bailey said the driver, who was under the bridge when he spotted the falling moose, was "pretty excited about it."

Police Chief Charles Runnels said the yearling bull probably panicked because of the noise and traffic along I-95 and began running. He said it just picked the wrong spot to jump the guardrail, falling onto a road instead of landing in a field.

A passerby with a wrecker hauled away the carcass.

[Associated Press]

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