When a brother and sister struck a coyote at 75mph they assumed they had killed the animal and drove on.

But EIGHT hours later they found the wild animal embedded in their front fender - and very much ALIVE.

Not only that, the wild animal escaped from where it was being kept to recover.

Daniel and Tevyn East were driving at night along Interstate 80 near the Nevada-Utah border when they noticed a pack of coyotes near the roadside.

When one of the animals ran in front of the car, the impact sounded fatal so the siblings thought there no point in stopping.

"Right off the bat, we knew it was bad," Daniel explained. "We thought the story was over."

After the incident around 1am, they continued their 600 mile drive to North San Juan - even stopping for fuel at least twice. They had started in Boulder, Colorada and were driving to start a new life at an artists community.

But it was only when they finally reached their destination at 9am did they take time to examine what damage may have sustained.

"Immediately I saw a ton of fur and said 'Sis, don't look, this is bad.'" says Daniel.

They were amazed to find the coyote embedded between the front fender and radiator of their Honda Fit car.

Tevyn says: "The animal flinches and my brother, who is usually as cool as a cucumber, starts jumping around. He had such a tiny space to move around in.

They called Penn Valley-based Wildlife Rehabilitation and Release, who arrived to help free the coyote by removing the whole bumper of the car.

Tevyn says: "I don't like hitting animals, but when we saw the body we didn't see any cuts."

"No broken bones, no internal injuries, just some scrapes on its paw," Daniel added.

The coyote - which was nicknamed Tricky - became active while trying to escape the car space so, fearing severe internal injuries, wildlife rescue worker Jan Crowell managed to snare a loop around its neck.

Jan took the coyote to a kennel in her yard while figuring out where to release it.

She explains: "But as arrangements were being made for its release, the coyote managed to escape by getting under the bottom bar of the cage and run off to its ultimate freedom."

"We named it Tricky for a reason," Daniel East said.

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Story: Dean Murray