"Running of the bulls" in Pennsylvania injures woman on motor scooter

(CBS/AP) GIRARD, Pa. - It wasn't supposed to be the running of the bulls in northwestern Pennsylvania, but according to some accounts, it turned into that.

A woman on a motor scooter was injured when she was rammed by a bull - one of several bovines that got away - while being unloaded at a slaughterhouse in Girard Township, state police said.

Troopers from the barracks in Girard say 30-year-old Nicole Morton was taken to a hospital in Erie after the incident mid-afternoon Wednesday.

Morton, of nearby Millcreek Township, was riding with her husband and another woman when they saw the animals run across the road while they were stopped in traffic, according to the Erie Times-News.

"It looked like a calm bull at first, then suddenly it up and charged," Morton's husband Kevin, 34, said. "When it got in front of my wife, it just reared up and charged her. It jumped up into her and hit her in the face."

Nicole Morton was conscious and talking when she was taken by ambulance to UPMC Hamot hospital in Erie with unspecified injuries. A hospital spokeswoman could not immediately provide information on Morton's condition.

A woman who answered the phone at McDonald Meats told the AP, "It wasn't a bull and, no, we have no comment" before hanging up.

Police said they were standing by their account of the incident in a news release, adding that company officials, apparently concerned about possible litigation, were already arguing at the scene with the workers who were unloading the animals about who was responsible for their escape.

The Erie Times-News reports the bull was one of four bovines that got free while being taken to the meat processing plant.  Police say the bull and the other cows had to be shot by police who responded to the scene.

A dead end, either way.