Uber driver’s car totaled after slamming into bear in the middle of I-75

CATOOSA COUNTY, Ga. — One Henry County woman said she slammed into a bear on Interstate 75 South. It happened in Catoosa County over the weekend.

Aubrey Bowen is an Uber driver in metro Atlanta, but her last ride Saturday night took her to North Georgia. She was done for the night and headed home when she was stopped in her tracks.

“All I saw was something big coming down on the windshield and then it made a loud noise boom all the airbags came out, everything, and I slammed on the brakes,” said Bowen. “There was nothing I could do I couldn’t see anything it was real smoky in there.”

Thankfully, a second driver stopped to help her out before the police arrived.

“I was telling the officer, I don’t know I think it was a deer because that’s what’s normal,” said Bowen. “Then he drove up a little bit put his lights on and he came back and said that was a bear and I had to drag it out the highway he was like everybody was running it over.”

The officer took a picture of the bear.

The Georgia Department of Natural Resources said it happens, especially in Catoosa County, the prime habitat for black bears in Georgia.

For Bowen, she’s left with a totaled car and unable to make a claim with Uber since she just finished a ride. She also has a cut and a swollen knee.

She says this bear has changed the way she’ll drive when she returns to the road.

“So now I definitely don’t think I’m going to be driving in the evening ,nighttime just because of the wilderness and what could come out,” added Bowen.

A GoFundMe was set up to help her with expenses.