By Mike Morris
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
KENNEWAW, Ga. — A Kennesaw woman was shaken up but otherwise uninjured after hitting a black bear Tuesday on I-75 in Cherokee County.
Sandra Allen said she had just left home for her morning commute to Calhoun and was in the left lane of the northbound interstate when the 200-pound bear ran out of the wooded median north of Wade Green Road.
Kennesaw resident Sandra Allen’s 2001 Volvo was damaged when she hit a bear on I-75 Tuesday morning. The bear was severely injured.
“He just came dashing toward the highway and I knew we were going to hit,” said Allen, who works for flooring giant Mohawk Industries. “I screamed and hit the poor fellow.”
The left front of Allen’s four-door 2001 Volvo hit the bear at highway speed.
“There’s no way I could have avoided it,” said Allen, still shaken several hours after the 7:45 a.m. incident. “There was such an impact that the passenger door behind me buckled.”
Cherokee County sheriff’s Sgt. Jay Baker said the bear was severely injured, and it was put down by a Cobb County police officer who first arrived on the scene.
The left lane of the interstate was briefly closed while officials with the state Department of Natural Resources removed the bear.
Allen, 47, who described herself as a “big animal person,” said she initially considered calling her own veterinarian to see if anything could be done to save the bear, but she then learned the bear had died.
“I wasn’t worried about my car, I wasn’t worried about me,” she said. “I was worried about this poor bear. The whole thing is just incredibly sad to me.”
Tuesday’s incident wasn’t the first this year involving bears in the ‘burbs.
Bears have also been spotted this summer roaming around Roswell, East Cobb and near Stone Mountain in DeKalb County.
Three years ago, a Gainesville man driving on I-85 in Gwinnett County struck and killed a 450-pound black bear near the Ga. 120 exit.
Copyright 2007 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution