Adam Lamb was riding his motorcycle near Guanella Pass in central Colorado when he struck a moose, KTLA sister station KDVR reports.
“Between her lower rib cage and her hind legs,” Lamb said of the crash that happened last Saturday. “I ended up ejecting from the motorcycle over her.”
Lamb was taken to the hospital with injuries.
“I was hanging onto the handlebars, I’m pretty sure that’s when I broke both of my arms,” Lamb said.
He said people in the area came to his aid. “If there weren’t people there around me, there’s no telling how long I would have laid there,” Lamb said.
Matt Bagge was one of them.
“So we grab some jackets and some blankets for him, and he said his hands were cold and then we grabbed another thing to keep his legs elevated,” Bagge said.
The moose didn’t survive, but it wasn’t left on the side of the road.
“At the end, we got about a hundred pounds of meat,” Bagge said. “We’re going to have a celebration when he (Lamb) can maybe hold a stick over the fire and roast some marshmallows and maybe some moose meat.”
Lamb said he’s expected to be discharged from the hospital this weekend and is looking at a recovery of about six to eight weeks.
Wildlife officials warn to stay vigilant for wildlife
Colorado Parks and Wildlife reminded drivers in the high country to brace for these types of crashes.
“As we move into fall and winter, this is a time when we do see an increase in vehicle collisions,” said Joey Livingston, from CPW.
CPW said hitting an animal on purpose is tantamount to poaching, but similar to this case, it isn’t a crime when it’s an accident.
CPW said the state has a thriving moose population and the animals can be found high in the mountains, such as where Lamb was riding, as well as in areas along rivers streams and lakes.
