PARIS – An Oxford County sheriff’s deputy responding to a call in Magalloway Plantation Sunday night was blind-sided by a moose that ran into the SUV the deputy was driving.

The moose caused about $3,000 in body damage to the Ford Expedition, Sheriff Wayne Gallant said Thursday.

Cpl. Justin Brown, who was driving the SUV, was uninjured in the incident. The moose, after rolling off the vehicle, returned to the woods.

The collision occurred on Route 16 in New Hampshire not far from Errol and was handled by New Hampshire State Police, Gallant said.

The deputy was traveling through New Hampshire because it is the fastest route to a remote section of Oxford County not far from Umbagog Lake, which straddles the Maine-New Hampshire border. He was responding to a call there.

Gallant said the collision was captured on the SUV’s on-board digital video recorder and appears to have been unavoidable since the moose ran into the vehicle.

The accident provides an opportunity to warn motorists to be on the lookout for moose and deer as the animals become more active on the highways after a long snowy winter, Gallant said.

Brown had activated the lights and siren on the SUV but the moose apparently paid them no heed, Gallant said.

Two days earlier, a Maine State Police cruiser was damaged in a crash with a moose in the same area, Gallant said. “They’re thicker than fleas up there,” Gallant said.

The department had issued a “be-on-the-lookout” or a BOLO for the moose, which left the scene of the accident, Gallant quipped.