Ambulance hits bull moose near Ely, goes into ditch on Highway 169

An Ely ambulance struck a bull moose and went into the ditch on Highway 169 near milepost 284, turning a routine overnight run into a wildlife crash in St. Louis County.

The Minnesota State Patrol said the crash happened at 12:39 a.m. Monday, April 27, 2026, near Ely. The ambulance driver was not injured, but authorities said the two passengers riding in the rear of the vehicle may have been hurt. Their condition had not been released. The moose died at the scene.

Lt. Michael Lee said in an email that, “There were no injuries to the driver, and possible injuries to the two passengers in the rear of the ambulance.” The brief account leaves open what kind of call the ambulance was answering and how the crash affected the people inside, but it is already a reminder that emergency vehicles are exposed to the same road hazards as anyone else traveling through the northwoods after dark.

Highway 169 carries steady traffic through a part of northeastern Minnesota where large animals can appear suddenly on dark stretches of road. Moose are especially dangerous because of their size and height. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources says an adult moose can weigh as much as four or five full-grown white-tailed deer. The National Park Service says Minnesota moose can weigh 800 to 1,300 pounds and stand about six feet tall at the shoulders.

Those numbers help explain why a collision can be so destructive, especially on a highway where speeds are higher and visibility is limited overnight. In this case, the ambulance was not only damaged enough to land in the ditch, it also became the scene of a possible patient-care emergency, the kind that can strain response plans in a rural county where the next closest unit may be miles away.

The crash also points to a broader safety issue in St. Louis County and across northern Minnesota. The DNR says the best moose habitat in Minnesota is in young forests created by logging, forest fires and windstorms in northeastern Minnesota. A 2020 aerial survey cited in moose research estimated the state’s moose population at about 3,150 animals.

Minnesota transportation agencies use crash-data and crash-mapping tools to identify high-risk roadway segments and traffic-safety patterns, a sign that animal collisions are not just rare surprises but a persistent hazard on roads like Highway 169 near Ely.