Circus Elephant & Bus Driver Killed In Wreck
Posted by: Loren Coleman on September 23rd, 2008
I share this story in line with stories and comments frequently left here about the often-told tale of “escaped circus animals” being responsible for mystery animal sightings. Apparently, in Mexico, it does happen that animals escape from circuses and private zoos, sometimes with tragic consequences.
The Associated Press is reporting on Tuesday, September 23, 2008, that a five-ton elephant escaped from a circus and wandered onto a busy highway, where it was hit by a bus. Both the driver of the bus and pachyderm were killed early Tuesday.
A dead elephant lies on the Mexico-Piramides freeway near Mexico City after being struck by a bus early today.
Bus driver Tomas Lopez, 49, was killed and at least four passengers were hospitalized after the pre-dawn collision in Ecatepec, just north of Mexico City.
State police spokesman Juan Sanchez said the elephant escaped from its cage at the Circo Union, but he declined to give any other details. He said officials were investigating.
The state-funded Notimex news agency reported that the elephant named Indra escaped as its keeper arrived to feed it, knocking down a metal door and wandering through two neighborhoods before trying to cross the highway.
Last month, the AP report continues, a 500-pound lion escaped from a local lawmaker’s private zoo in southern Mexico, killing two dogs and a pig and attacking a woman and child on a donkey before it was sedated and captured.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
🙁 sad news indeed
This was in the front page of the Reforma newspaper this morning.
From what I read on said paper, the poor animal escaped from a warehouse where she was kept and fed, along other circus animals —another elephant and 2 camels, if I remember correctly.
His keeper was feeding her when “Indra” suddenly panicked and went loose. Now, the paper doesn’t get into the detail of why this panic attack happened. Was the keeper mistreating the pachyderm? I’ll see if I find more info about this story.
If you guys wish to give a fortean spin to this news in the mean time, this happened not very far from the ancient Teotihuacan archeological site…
Poor animal, maybe she just had enough of that miserable life. I remember this time I went with my sisters and two small cousins to one of those circus; they had an elephant so old and emaciated, you could count the ribs of the poor beast’s skeleton, and yet people took their kids and put them on top of the animal’s back so they could take a photo… Terrible.
And of course, my condolences to the family of the driver, and my prayers go to the injured passengers.