STERLING, Mass. -- A Sterling woman is lucky to be alive after a head-on collision with a moose in Leominster Thursday night.

NewsCenter 5's Jim Boyd reported that the moose wound up in the front seat of the Mercury Tracer.

"Just sort of disbelief, shock. Everybody that was at the scene was screaming. Seeing this moose sitting in the front seat of this lady's car was pretty astounding," said witness Lonnie Dellechiaie.

The driver of the car, Juleigh McDowell, hit the 500-pound moose that ended up sitting upright in the car's passenger seat.

"I was surprised to see the moose was still alive and I just wanted to get it out as safely as possible," said tow truck driver Robert Condon.

Condon helped to extract the moose from the car once firefighters had cut the roof off. The moose was seriously injured in the crash and was put down.

McDowell suffered only a few scrapes and bruises and was sent home after a brief visit to the hospital.