PORTLAND – A 16-year-old Augusta girl was the victim of Maine’s first fatal moose-car collision this year.

The Maine State Police said Mallory Dulak died Thursday morning at Maine Medical Center.

Dulak was heading south on Interstate 95 in Sidney around midnight when her Pontiac Bonneville struck a moose, State Police spokesman Stephen McCausland said. A 15-year-old passenger was injured.

McCausland said this is the time of year when moose come out of the woods and head to the roads to lick up road salt and escape black flies.

Last year, one person died in a crash with a moose in Maine. There were three such fatalities in 2000, one in 1999 and five in 1998.