A motorcyclist is fighting for his life after crashing into a bear on a major New Jersey highway, in an unusual and violent collision that also killed the animal. The rider was left with serious injuries, and the crash has prompted an investigation by state police into how the two came together on the open road.
The collision happened late Sunday night on Interstate 78 in Clinton Township, in Hunterdon County. That stretch of highway became the scene of a sudden and severe crash when the motorcycle and the bear met in the darkness, turning a routine night-time ride into a life-threatening emergency in a matter of seconds.
At the center of the incident is a 31-year-old rider. He was thrown from his Harley-Davidson in the impact, a detail that speaks to the force of the collision between the motorcycle and the large animal. Being ejected from the bike left him exposed to grave harm on the roadway, far from the protection a vehicle might have offered.
The injuries he suffered were severe. He is described as fighting for his life after the crash, having sustained serious injuries in the collision. The gravity of his condition reflects just how dangerous a sudden encounter with a bear can be for someone traveling at highway speeds on two wheels.
The bear did not survive the crash. The animal died as a result of the collision, becoming the other casualty of an accident that unfolded almost instantly. Its presence on the interstate at night set the stage for an impact that neither the rider nor the animal was able to avoid once they were in each other's path.
State police are now investigating the circumstances of the crash. As the lead agency on the case, they are expected to work through exactly how the motorcycle and the bear came to collide on the interstate, documenting the sequence of events that left one man critically hurt and the animal dead.
For now, attention centers on the injured rider, who was fighting for his life in the hours after the crash. With the bear dead and the motorcyclist in serious condition, the state police investigation is left to piece together how the late-night collision on Interstate 78 in Clinton Township came to happen.