SAPPORO — Police in Japan’s northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido are asking drivers to be cautious after a collision between a fast-moving bear and a car on a highway in the town of Kushiro.
A brown bear is seen jumping out from the left side of a road into the path of a vehicle just before they collided, in a screenshot of a video provided by Hokkaido Prefectural Police.
A passenger car driven by a woman in her 20s collided with a brown bear measuring around 1.5 meters in length on National Route 272 at about 10 p.m. on June 17. The driver was uninjured, and although the bear was knocked away by the impact, it quickly fled the scene.
A video released by Hokkaido Prefectural Police shows the bear emerging from the surrounding forest on the left side, climbing over a guardrail and attempting to cross the road.
According to sources including Kushiro Police Station, the car sustained damage but remained operable. Police say the woman reported the incident, saying, “After exiting the Kushiro-Beppo Interchange (on the Doto Expressway) and traveling about 300 meters (northeast) toward Nakashibetsu, I collided with a bear. The bear disappeared after that.”
A police official cautioned, “Even if drivers aren’t traveling at high speeds, it’s difficult to avoid bears suddenly appearing at night. Please drive carefully.”
(Japanese original by Takumi Taniguchi, Hokkaido News Department)
AloJapan.com