As natural habitat shrinks, urban areas are now seeing animals that used only to be found in the wild, now coming closer to human population centers. Such situations can prove dangerous and end up with both humans and animals getting hurt.
The Lake County Record-Bee reported that a mountain lion that was hit by a motorist caused a chain-reaction crash that left nine people injured.
According to the California Highway Patrol (CHP), the accident happened on the night of Friday, July 19th, on State Route 29 near Kelseyville in Lake County at approximately 10:23 p.m. The driver of a 1990 Ford F-150 pickup truck, Naividad Sanchez, 40, was traveling westbound on Highway 29 when she struck a large mountain lion with her vehicle.
Sanchez swerved to the left; her vehicle crossed the centerline of the highway and struck a Lexus SUV head-on. The accident left Daniel Lou Aguilera, 71, the driver of the Lexus with major injuries. Two additional adult occupants of the Lexus suffered only minor injuries.
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Sanchez also suffered major injuries while five other passengers in the Ford pickup, suffered injuries ranging from minor to moderate to major injuries. Three of the occupants of the pickup truck were under the age of 18; four of the five passengers in the truck were not wearing seatbelts at the time of the crash.
No further word on their current condition has been released.
Authorities say that the mountain lion was killed in the accident.
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