PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — One driver had an unusual sight on Interstate 95 in Philadelphia early Tuesday morning after spotting a horse galloping down the highway.
Action News viewer Angelo Palmer shot video as he drove alongside the horse running free on I-95 northbound near the Girard Avenue exit.
“You don’t normally see that, especially that early in the morning,” Palmer, who is a school bus driver, said.
Luckily, it happened before the morning traffic rush so not many vehicles were on the roadway.
Around 4:45 a.m., Palmer said he and his coworker were in a small school bus on the Vine Street Expressway.
He was in the backseat when he noticed the traffic had slowed.
“I looked ahead of traffic and noticed a couple cars had their four ways on,” he said. That’s when he saw a horse galloping down the highway.
Palmer, who was in the backseat, pulled out his cellphone and started recording.
“I got a good shot,” he told Action News. “The horse is going like 25 miles per hour because we slowed down to his speed. We all matched his speed because we were trying to protect the horse.”
Police said it does not appear to have escaped a horse trailer. They think it ran away from one of the city’s urban riding clubs.
The horse has since been caught and is safe. Police corralled the animal in the Port Richmond section of the city after the horse somehow made it off the highway without incident.
He was eventually wrangled off the Allegheny Avenue exit in Port Richmond. Rescuers gave it water as they waited for the owner to come pick it up.
Around 6:40 a.m., two men came with a trailer to transport the horse. One of the men was wearing a sweatshirt from Fletcher Street Urban Riding Club and said they had just bought the horse.
When asked how the horse escaped, one of the men said, “Somebody let him out.”
The animal has since been taken back to a safe location.
The man also said the horse is expected to be okay.
Palmer said that is the best piece of news. “He made out ok. That’s a good thing. Good outcome.”