Montana Trooper Says He Saw a Kangaroo Near Highway Rollover Accident
Vehicle accidents involving wildlife are nothing new in Montana, but Montana Highway Patrol Trooper Matt Finley handled an extremely strange case in Phillips County this week that involved a large marsupial.
“On Wednesday, June 20, I was notified of a single vehicle rollover occurring west of Dodson on US Highway 2,” Finley said. “As I made my way there, I stopped at the hospital where the occupants had been taken to and I spoke with the driver who stated she had swerved to miss a kangaroo on the road. I thought that was a bit strange and I wasn’t really believing it at the time.”
The driver has since been released from the hospital, and is ok. Finley was in disbelief though and drove out to the scene of the crash to investigate.
“We were all laughing about it,” Finley said. “It was late at night. I didn’t know if they saw a deer or thought it was a kangaroo or what it was, but then I went out to the crash site and about 40 yards away from where it had occurred, there was a kangaroo standing in the ditch. I was told by somebody that lives in the area that there is supposedly a kangaroo farm near there. I don’t know if it had just gotten out or gone under a fence or what. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know fish and game knew how to handle a kangaroo. They kind of treated it like a cow along the roadway.”
Finley says he tried to take a picture, but it was too dark. He says he will be heading back out today to try to find the kangaroo and whoever owns it.