A moose was hit by a driver and later put down in Park City Saturday night.
The Park City Police Department responded to a call Saturday around 11 p.m. regarding a moose that was hit by a car on Kearns Boulevard and Comstock Drive.
The injured animal staggered into a nearby backyard in the Prospector neighborhood. Responding officers called the Division of Natural Resources to see if they could treat the animal, but ultimately the moose had to be put down.
Phil Kirk with the Park City Police Department said accidents involving moose happen from time to time.
"It is, you know, living in a mountain town," Kirk said. "Wildlife sometimes get involved with a traffic accident collision. Yeah, and unfortunately, this one, the animal was injured severely enough that we had to put it down."
The driver wasn’t injured in the crash, but Kirk said that’s not always the case.
"They're large enough and tall enough that they can go right through the windshield and injure if not kill the motorist.," he said. "So it does happen more commonly over on [S.R.] 224. There's quite a bit of wildlife, elk and moose across that roadway going over to those fields. And it's pretty dark over there."
After the animal was put down, on-call crews came to the area with heavy equipment to remove the carcass from the backyard.
