Father, son survive crash with bear near Roy
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ROY, Wash. -- A father and his son luckily were not hurt in a crash with a bear near Roy Tuesday afternoon.
The bear, on the other hand, did not survive.
Stan Lengele and his 12-year-old son, Zacheriah, were heading out of Roy on Highway 507 toward Yelm when the got the surprise of their lives. They hit the 350-pound bear and the impact flipped the family's SUV over and it landed in a ditch.
"We hit the ditch at a sideways angle which flipped us over on our top facing in the other direction," Lengle said.
WSP Trooper Guy Gill says the bear was about 3 years old and weighed about 300 pounds.
The bear, on the other hand, did not survive.
Stan Lengele and his 12-year-old son, Zacheriah, were heading out of Roy on Highway 507 toward Yelm when the got the surprise of their lives. They hit the 350-pound bear and the impact flipped the family's SUV over and it landed in a ditch.
"We hit the ditch at a sideways angle which flipped us over on our top facing in the other direction," Lengle said.
WSP Trooper Guy Gill says the bear was about 3 years old and weighed about 300 pounds.
I live in Roy so only about 2 miles from my house.
Last fall we had signs up warning kids to stay away from a certain area in our neighborhood because of a bear.
I wonder if it was this guy.
A few details are missing that would be nice to know:Â What was the vehicle that collided with the bear? Just curiosu abuot that.
 And what exactly do they mean when they say the bear will 'benefit' the other animals? I can surmise, but I kinda hope I'm wrong.
I know that carnivores are also scavengers & it's great to "recycle" back into the food chain (even if the beneficiaries are confined critters) but it just seems weird to feed a dead bear to wolves or other bears.
Sounds like he barely avoided a major accident. Sorry, couldn't resist. ;)
Very sad that the bear got hit. Â On the plus side, at least other animals will benefit.
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I'd sure like to know what they're going to do with the animal body. Â It would be fun to send that thing to a taxidermist and have it "restored".
Agreed ... but, in shadows, they do camo very well.
How do you not see a 300# bear?
It happens, just like when people don't see a 3000 pound car. Bears can move at a pretty good clip - something like up to 40mph and they aren't too keen on the whole "right of way" thing :)
 @fyrefawx The same way you don't see a 1,200 pound moose that decided to run across the road in front of you. Animals have a great ability to move quickly in the underbrush next to the roads and don't think to look before crossing.
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I doubt the bear was standing in the middle of the road.
Surprised it doesn't happen more often. We keep an eye open for our ursine neighbors here and haven't hit any but do see them crossing the road ... or ambling down our street ... quite often. (Bears are good neighbors, haven't heard a boombox from one yet.)
Glad the guy's ok. Sad the bear did not survive.