Woman Lands In Hospital After Being Attacked By Escapee Monkeys From Car Crash

A Pennsylvania woman was hospitalized after she was reportedly attacked by monkeys that escaped from a truck involved in a car crash.

Danville resident Michele Fallon landed in a hospital with pink eye symptoms after a monkey hissed at her while she was trying to help the driver of a monkey-hauling truck that crashed on the side of a Valley Township interstate on Friday, Jan. 21, the Daily Beast reported.

On Friday, Fallon reportedly saw a truck hauling a trailer collide with a dump truck near where Route 54 meets Interstate 80. Seeing the accident, Fallon pulled over to help the truck driver.

The truck was reportedly transporting 100 cynomolgus macaque monkeys from Africa to a lab in Missouri for testing. However, after the accident, three monkeys managed to escape from the vehicle. While Fallon was helping the driver, she came face-to-face with an agitated monkey that hissed at her face.

“He just asked if his trailer was okay. He never said, ‘if you do come near a crate do not touch it,’ if he would have told me that, I would have been more careful,” she said.

Since the monkeys were not quarantined and monitored, Fallon was advised to take precautions by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) because she was in close contact with the monkeys.

Fallon, who reportedly had an open cut on her hand and developed pink-eye-like symptoms following the incident, went to the emergency room at Geisinger Danville.

“I was close to the monkeys, I touched the crates, I walked through their feces so I was very close. So I called to inquire, you know, was I safe?” Fallon said.

Fallon has already reportedly received her first dose of rabies vaccine and a round of anti-viral medication.

Meanwhile, the three monkeys that escaped have since been recovered by the authorities.

During the search, authorities warned the public not to approach the monkeys since they could transmit hepatitis B through their saliva or feces.

Meanwhile, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has filed a complaint regarding the incident, and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is investigating the accident. Moreover, the animal rights organization released a statement and urged the United States to stop importing monkeys for experiments.