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You’ve heard the saying “Lightning never strikes the same spot twice,” well, you can apparently throw that old adage out the window if you’re visiting Utah’s Antelope Island State Park.
Kyler Bourgeous, a Utah resident, was trampled and gored by a bison while trail running through the park back in June. He was gored in two places and suffered a collapsed lung, broken ribs and injuries to his internal organs.
After months of recovering from the incident, Kyler headed back to Antelope Island, this time on a Friday night date with 22-year-old Kayleigh Davis. After all, what are the odds they run into the bison again?
“I thought my situation was just a freak accident,” Bourgeous reportedly stated. “But apparently, they’re a lot more aggressive than I ever thought.”
According to Valley News Live, Davis claims she wasn’t trying to get a selfie or antagonizing the animal by any means. Apparently, she was just getting out of the way of some oncoming bikers as they made their way down the trail.
“All of the sudden, I see the bison charging me, so I start running towards the lake away from it, and it flips me up,” Davis said.
She slammed on the ground, fracturing her ankle before she noticed her thigh gushing blood from where the bison had just gored her. To her credit, she remained calm during the terrifying encounter and says she used what Kyler had told her about his own attack and didn’t move a muscle.
“I’ve heard from his story – just stay still so it doesn’t come charging at you again,” she said.
With Kayleigh now recovering from the freak accident, the two are at least able to laugh about the whole thing and their extremely (un)lucky odds.
“To me it feels like it would be a one in a million chance,” Davis said. “It could’ve been worse, I could say. I think it could have been worse.”
Utah State Parks officials offer the following advice to avoid making a bison aggressive if you encounter one:
- If you see a bison and it stops what it is doing and starts paying attention to you, you are too close and should slowly back away.
- If a bison is in the middle of the road, wait for it to pass. Do not get out of your vehicle.
- If a bison is on the side of the road, feel free to slowly drive past it. But again, stay inside your vehicle.
- If you see a bison in the distance, do not walk across the rangeland to get closer to it. Take your photos from a safe distance.
- If you are hiking and a bison is close to or on the trail, you should either back away and return the way you came, or leave the trail and give the animal a very wide berth when passing it. Shaw said it is OK to go off the trail if your safety is at risk.